August 13

Practical wisdom consists in living according to reason, even if everyone condemns you for it.

1

When truth appears to its opponents in irrefutable form, they use the last resort they have: they slander those who speak the truth. But, by throwing dirt at the people who speak the truth, they only cover the seed of truth with earth, making it grow faster.

— Lucy Mallory

2

The heavens are displeased with us for our sins, but the world for our virtues.

— The Talmud

3

Do not be concerned with the quantity of your admirers, but with their quality: it is praiseworthy to be disliked by bad people.

— Seneca

4

Human reason is a divine lamp whose light penetrates into the very depths of things.

— Eastern wisdom

5

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

— John 15:20

6

If, while sitting in a moving ship, we look at some object on this same ship, then our motion would be unnoticeable to us; but if we look to the side at an object which is not moving together with us, at the shore for example, then we would immediately notice our motion. It is the same in life. When everyone lives not as they should, then nobody sees it, but if a single person comes to his senses and begins living according to God’s law, it becomes immediately apparent how badly everyone else is acting. And the rest persecute him for it.

— Pascal

7

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!” said Christ.

The meaning of these words is that we should not set ourselves the external goal of pleasing people by adjusting and adapting ourselves to their multitude of imperfect and contradictory tastes, desires and caprices, and instead we should set ourselves the inner goal of pleasing God by listening to and adapting to his one, perfect will.

And, just as masons construct a building not by carving stones to match their shape to the irregularities and peculiarities of other stones, but by cutting them into rectangular shapes, so is it only possible for people to establish the kingdom of God on earth not when they educate themselves and their children according to contradictory and fickle demands of human hearsay, but when they begin perfecting themselves according to the universal laws of goodness and truth, which can be discovered with the help of one’s conscience and reason.

— Fyodor Strakhov

It is a mistake to feel upset by the oppression, attacks and persecution against wisdom. Wisdom would not be wisdom if it did not expose the insanity of leading bad lives. And people would not be people if, without modifying their lives, they could calmly endure being exposed.