Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

May 18

One cannot say that the consciousness of the divinity of your soul gives you power. This consciousness elevates a human being to a sphere where there is no longer any notion of strength and weakness and, consequently, of power.

1

Heaven is nearer than the earth to those who have cleansed their souls and are free from doubt.

Even those who have all the knowledge that can be acquired from the five senses will get no benefit from it unless they know the true nature of things.

True knowledge concerning any one thing is the awareness of the true being within that thing.

— The Kural

2

Let no one think that there is any other birth for the soul other than becoming aware of its true nature.

Those who step onto this path will never go back.

— The Kural

3

He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself, stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works miracles; just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on his head.

— Emerson

4

People will ask you: how is it that you know God? Tell them: because he is in my heart. If this was not true, people would be completely powerless. Look upon the Self-Existent not with those eyes of yours, but with the eyes of your heart. Can the one who does not know himself know God? True self-knowledge is the knowledge of God.

— Persian wisdom

5

Who can harm you and who can be more powerful than you when you merge with God? And that is something that is within your power.

6

One thing we know, or may know, if we will—that the heart and conscience of man are divine; that in his perception of evil, in his recognition of good, he is himself a God manifest in the flesh; that his joy in love, his agony in anger, his indignation at injustice, his glory in self-sacrifice, are all eternal, indisputable proofs of his unity with a great Spiritual Head.

— John Ruskin


The one who recognizes the divinity of his soul and lives by it possesses everything that he can desire for his wellbeing.