Leo Tolstoy
Translated by
Dmitry Fadeyev
Only the increase of love between people can change the existing structure of society.
Beings destroy each other, but they also love and help each other. It is not the passion for destruction that supports life, but a feeling of reciprocity, which in the language of our heart is called love.
As far as I can perceive the development of the life of the world, I see in it only the manifestation of this law of mutual aid. All of history is nothing but an ever clearer realization of this single law of mutual harmony of all beings.
Love is a dangerous word. Evil deeds are committed in the name of love for the family, even worse deeds are committed in the name of love for the fatherland, and the most terrifying atrocities are committed in the name of love for humankind. That love gives meaning to human life is nothing new—but what is love? This question is constantly being answered by the wisdom of humankind and is always being answered via negation: we are shown that what has been incorrectly referred to and passed under the guise of love is not love.
Love will transform the appearance of this wearied, old world, in which we live like pagans and enemies to one another; it will warm the heart in such a way that people will soon see how easily the futile diplomacy of statesmen, enormous armies, and fleets, and fortresses will all disappear, and people will be left wondering why their ancestors toiled over these useless, stupid things for so long.
— Emerson
The application of the power of love to the great interests of human beings has become antiquated and forgotten. Once or twice in history it has been applied, and always with great success. But a time will come when love will become the general law of human life, and all those calamities from which people now suffer will disappear, they will dissolve in the universal sunlight.
— Emerson
If it is possible to inspire in people a feeling of reverence towards imaginary sacred things—sacraments, relics, books—then how much more necessary it is to inspire in children and unthinking people a respect not for something imaginary, but for the most real, joyous feeling of love for other people, which everyone can understand.
And a time will come—the very time of which Christ said he yearned for—when people will not feel proud of seizing other people and labor by force and will not be happy about inspiring fear and envy, but will feel proud of loving everyone, and will be happy that, despite all the miseries caused to them by others, they are experiencing the feeling that liberates them from all that is bad.
Among Chinese sages there was one by the name of Mozi who suggested to the rulers that they should inspire in the people not a respect for strength, wealth, power and courage, but for love. He said: “People are taught to value wealth and glory—and they value them. Teach them instead to love love—and they will love love.” Mencius, a student of Confucius, did not agree with him and argued against him, and the teachings of Mozi did not triumph. But 2000 years have passed, and this teaching must be realized in our Christian world, after everything that has been blocking the rays of true Christian light has been cast aside, which preaches this very same thing.
One sure sign separates people’s deeds into the good and the bad: if the deed increases people’s love and unity, then it is good; if it leads to strife and disintegration, then it is bad.
The time of harmony, forgiveness and love, which must replace the time of strife, war, executions and hatred, cannot but come because people already know, and they know for certain, that hatred is just as ruinous for the soul as it is for the body, and just as ruinous for an individual as it is for society, and that love provides a good that is both internal and external, a good for the individual and for all people.
This time is approaching. It is our responsibility to do everything we can to bring it closer, and to refrain from doing anything that pushes it away.