Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

January 27

Love for people gives one a true, inalienable inner good by uniting a human being with other people and with God.

1

No one can hinder a person’s spiritual development other than himself. Neither physical weakness nor mental disability can get in the way of the development of spiritual nature because the development of spiritual nature consists solely in the growth of love, and nothing can stand in the way of this growth.

— Lucy Mallory

2

A wise human being loves not because it benefits him, but because he finds the good in love itself.

3

Have no regrets about the past, for what is the use in feeling regret? Falsehood says: grieve; truth says: just love. Discard all your memories. Do not speak about the past; live in the light of love, and let everything else take its course.

— Persian wisdom

4

A Chinese sage was asked: “What is knowledge?” He said: “To know people.” He was then asked: “What is virtue?” He said: “To love people.”

5

A human being cannot attain happiness, because the greater his drive towards worldly happiness, the less attainable it is. Neither can the fulfillment of duty make one happy. The fulfillment of duty gives one peace, not happiness.

Only the divine, holy love and union with God can give one true bliss, because when sacrifice turns into joy, a constant, growing, inviolable joy, the soul experiences everlasting bliss.

— Amiel

6

Try to love someone whom you did not like, whom you blamed, who had insulted you. And if you can do this, then you will experience a completely new and surprising feeling of joy. You will immediately see in this human being the same God that dwells within you. And, just as light shines brighter after darkness, so too will the light of divine love burn brighter and more joyously within you after you free yourself from unlove.

7

I sense within myself a force which will in time transform the world. It does not push or press, but I can feel it gradually and inexorably drawing me towards it. And I see that something is attracting me, in the same way that I am unconsciously attracting others. I draw them towards me, and I am drawn towards them, and we perceive a striving towards a new union.

And I asked the force within me, “Who are you?”

And it answered me, “I am love, I am the lord of the heavens and I want to be the lord of the earth.”

“I am the most powerful of all the heavenly forces, and I have come here to form the society of the future.”

— Crosby

8

Just as a mother risks her life to raise and protect her child, her only child, so should every human being raise and protect within themselves a friendly feeling towards all living things.

— The Metta Sutta


The feelings of fearlessness, serenity and joy given us by love are so great that the material benefits provided by love (the love of people), are unnoticeable to a human being who has discovered the inner bliss of love.