Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

May 19

All faiths share the same foundation.

1

The only unquestionable manifestation of Divinity are the laws of goodness, which a human being feels within himself and whose acceptance, whether or not he wants to, unites him with other people.

2

It only seems that humankind is busy with trade, treaties, wars, sciences and arts; but it has only one important task, and it is this one task that it is working on: it is clarifying to itself the moral laws by which it lives. And this clarification of moral law is not just the most important task of the whole of humankind, it is the only one.

3

A sage was asked: is there a word which would be beneficial to follow for the whole of one’s life?

The sage replied: the word is shu; the meaning of this word is as follows: do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you.

— Chinese wisdom

4

For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

— Deuteronomy 30:11–14

Thus it was written in the Hebrew book, over 2000 years before us.

5

Act in such a way that you can say to everyone: do as I do.

— After Kant

6

The source of our duties is in God. His law determines our duties. The task of humankind is to keep improving our understanding of the law and applying it.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

7

The rationality observable in nature, which motivates a human being to do his duty and which holds him back from doing bad deeds, becomes a law not because it is written in books, but because this law is at once eternal and divine, like human intellect itself. And that is why the true, immutable law, which commands and forbids, is the intellect of the Highest Being.

— Cicero


Every time you interact with people, recall the law of reciprocity: treat others as you wish others to treat you. This can become a habit.