Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

August 29

If a human being recognizes and senses God in his soul, he recognizes and senses his unity with all the people in the world.

1

All souls belong to one and the same family, all share the same origin, the same nature, all are animated by one and the same light and all aspire to one and the same center, the same good. This greatest truth of ours, which lies at the foundation of every religion, is not only proven by reason, but seems to me an unquestionable property of our nature.

— Channing

2

Pride disappears from the heart of the one who loves the Highest One just as the light of a fire does in the sunlight. The Lord of Life dwells in the heart of the one whose heart is pure and in whom there is no pride, the one who views every being as his friend and loves every soul as his own, the one who treats everyone equally, with gentleness and love, the one who desires to do good and rejects vanity.

Just as the earth is adorned with the beautiful plants that it produces, so is he adorned with virtues in whose soul dwells the Lord of Life.

— Vishnu Purana

3

The God of Life dwells in you, in me and in everyone else; you should not feel angry at me or resent my advances: know that we are all equal, and therefore do not be proud, however exalted your rank.

— Mahmud Hasha

4

It is impossible to find any trace of an earthly origin in the soul. The soul possesses nothing composite, nothing that could have arisen or have been formed on earth; it even has nothing in it akin to water, air or fire. Really, there is nothing in water, nor air, nor fire which has the capacity to remember, cognize, think, keep a grasp of the past, look into the future and comprehend and make sense of the present. All this is characteristic only of spiritual beings, i.e. gods, and you will never be able to show that this has any origin other than the divine. And therefore, every being, if it senses, thinks, lives and acts, must have a heavenly and divine origin and so must be eternal. We cannot imagine God other than as something spiritual and free of all that can perish. So too is the human spirit.

— Cicero

5

A great thought has taken possession of my soul. This thought is the realization of the greatness of my soul, its unity with God, not as a consequence of a blind obedience to him but as a consequence of its ability to perceive him, as a consequence of its ability to perfect itself, as a consequence of its being destined for inexpressible greatness, as a consequence of its immortality.

— Amiel


All human beings are children of one Father, and therefore it is unnatural not to love one’s brothers.