Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

June 10

There is something in our souls that is not subject to death. We can be conscious of this something, or we can ignore it.

1

The one who knows other people is clever; the one who knows himself is enlightened.

The one who conquers others is strong; the one who conquers himself is mighty.

The one who, as he is dying, knows that he is indestructible is eternal.

— Laozi

2

People are born and live only as certain details of God, which therefore cannot be destroyed—they can disappear from our sight, but they cannot be destroyed.

3

The fact that one person took longer to cross my field of vision than another does not at all compel me to ascribe more true life to the first and less to the second. If I see a person passing by my window, it does not matter whether he is walking quickly or slowly, I know for certain that this person existed before I saw him and that he will continue to exist after he disappears from my sight.

4

I do not believe in any of the existing religions and therefore cannot be accused of blindly following some tradition or of being influenced by my upbringing. But throughout the whole of my life I have thought as deeply as possible about the law of our life. I have searched for it in the history of humankind and in my own consciousness, and I have become firmly convinced that death does not exist; that life cannot be anything other than eternal; that eternal self-perfection is the law of life; that every ability, every thought, every aspiration that has been given me must have its practical development; that there are thoughts and aspirations within us that far exceed the possibilities of our earthly life; that it is precisely the fact that we have these aspirations and that we cannot trace their origin in our senses is evidence of the fact that they enter us from a sphere beyond the earth, and that they can only be fulfilled outside of it; that nothing dies here on earth except from the various types of matter, and that to think that we die because our bodies die is the same as to think that a worker has died because his tools have worn out.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

5

The one who knows that the foundation of his life is the soul is beyond all danger. As he shuts the gates of his senses at the end of his life, he is completely untroubled.

— After Laozi

6

God is eternal and universal life in infinite time and space. He is everything that exists, and there is no other god than God. Everything is within him, nothing is outside of him. And therefore all existence is a manifestation of his life, and whenever a new life is born, it does not come from non-existence, but from him, and upon death it does not cease to exist, but returns to him.

— Enfantin

7

True life lies beyond time and space, and therefore death can only change the way life manifests in this world, but in no way can it destroy life itself.

8

No one can make you believe in immortality, and you cannot convince yourself that you are immortal. To have faith in immortality it is necessary for immortality to be real, and for it to be real you must see your life in that which is immortal.

9

You can believe in a future life only after you have established in your consciousness a new relationship to the world, such that cannot fit into the confines of your life.


Live with the part of your soul that perceives itself to be immortal, which is not afraid of death. This part of your soul is love.