Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

November 17

We suffer from the past and ruin our future solely because we neglect the present. The past and the future are dreams, only the present really exists.

1

Pay attention to the present. Only in the present do we perceive eternity.

— After Goethe

2

One of the illusions is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

— Emerson

3

Every generation should honor their outstanding people and not say: “their predecessors were worthier.”

— The Talmud

4

Nothing is as important as what we are doing at the present moment.

5

Use your vessel (your body) now, for tomorrow it might break.

— The Talmud

6

Were you doing that which you were meant to do? This question is of the utmost importance because the sole meaning of your life consists only in whether or not you are doing, in this short span of life you are given, that which the One who has sent you here wants from you. Are you doing it?

— The Talmud

7

Neither the past nor the future exists because no one has ever managed to enter these spectral kingdoms. There is only the present. Do not worry about tomorrow, because there is no tomorrow. Live in the present and for the present, and if your today is good, it is good forever.

— “The Whim” magazine


When you feel heavy, when you are suffering from memories of the past or are worried about the future, recall that life exists only in the present, focus all of your strength on it, and your suffering about the past and worries about the future will disappear, and you will experience freedom and joy.