Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

Index of Themes & Sources

Use the links below to navigate the book by the day's theme or quotation source. The source text does not provide a theme heading for each day, so the theme categorization below is my own rather than Tolstoy's. Please also note that Tolstoy does not cite many of his quotations (as he mentions in his Preface), so the index of sources below is not comprehensive.


Themes

God's will

Mar 2 Aug 12

agriculture

Dec 11

anger

Jan 23

animals

May 6

approval

Nov 2

arguments

Nov 4

beliefs

Mar 26

children

Sep 8

church, the

Nov 10

circumstances

Jul 23 Sep 13

compassion for animals

Jul 20

condemnation

Jun 14

conformity

Oct 12

consciousness

May 29

consequences

Apr 15

dejection

Jun 29

desire

Feb 6

divine power

Jul 1

divinity

May 18

doubt

Sep 16

equality

Feb 17

external world

Jun 5

false faith

Jan 16 Sep 19

falsehood

Jun 4

family

Jun 28

forgiveness

Apr 7 Jul 30

gluttony

Mar 4

good deeds

May 21

growth

May 22

justice

Aug 26

kingdom of God

Jul 14

marriage

Mar 11

material

Jun 5

meaning of life, the

Nov 23

military

Jan 22

misfortune

Jul 5

moderation

Aug 20

moral law

Sep 26

openness

Mar 20

passion

Nov 27

patriotism

Dec 9

perfection

Mar 1 May 11

persecution

Aug 13 Nov 20

personality

Aug 4

pleasure

Jun 1

praise

Mar 5

public opinion

Jul 10

punishment

Jul 4 Sep 5

reading

Jan 1

recompense

Aug 3

responsibility

Jan 12

rewards

Mar 3

sacrifice

Jan 19

self, the

Aug 27

self-control

Jan 6

self-denial

Oct 30

self-knowledge

Apr 22

self-mastery

Mar 29

self-reliance

May 13

self-renunciation

Feb 18 Aug 4

selflessness

Apr 20

service

Jan 3

social improvement

Jan 17

social order

Feb 23 Jun 30

spiritual growth

Dec 24

stupefaction

Sep 1

sympathy

Oct 24

temperance

May 23

temptations

Dec 10

thought

Feb 5

tolerance

Sep 2

tradition

Oct 31

tranquility

Oct 21

truthfulness

May 15 Jun 8

upbringing

May 5

Sources

Agni Purana

Mar 12 Oct 2

Alfieri, Vittorio

Oct 23

Allen, Grant

May 30 Sep 17

Almanzor

May 29

Arabian proverb

Feb 26

Arabian wisdom

Mar 24 Oct 1

Arnold, Matthew

Feb 22

Avesta, The

Jul 7

Bacon, Francis

Mar 13 Jun 6

Ballou, Adin

Jan 22

Basil of Caesarea

May 23

Ben Sira

Apr 24

Benchasai

Mar 3

Bentham, Jeremy

Feb 3 Nov 5

Bersier, Eugène

Jun 30

Bhagavata

Jul 22

Bigelow, Herbert

Jun 22 Jul 4

Bismarck, Otto von

Jul 28

Black Hawk

Nov 12

Blackie, John Stuart

Mar 29

Boiste, Pierre-Claude-Victor

Feb 15

Bondarev, Timofei

Dec 11

Browne, Edward Harold

Aug 30 Sep 27

Buddhist saying

Feb 16 Apr 7

Burke, Edmund

Jun 23

Calvin, John

Mar 16

Carpenter, Edward

Aug 4 Nov 3

Cato the Younger

Nov 4

Chertkov, Vladimir

Nov 22

Chinese Buddhism

Jan 13

Chinese proverb

Jan 3 Jan 4

Cleobulus

Nov 18

Clifford, Arthur

Jan 31

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Dec 13

Combe, Abram

Aug 14

Comte, Auguste

Mar 20

Considerant, Victor Prosper

Sep 14

Crosby, Ernest Howard

Jan 27 Nov 22

Daniel

Oct 28

Daud al-Ghaffir

May 13

Davidson, John Morrison

Nov 10

Democritus

May 7

Desatir, The

May 3

Descartes, René

May 29

Didache, The

Mar 15 Jul 11

Diogenes

Aug 1

Duclos, Charles Pinot

Sep 2

Eastern saying

Nov 19

Ecclesiasticus

Jan 11

Egyptian wisdom

May 8

Enfantin, Barthélemy-Prosper

Jun 10

Epicurus

Aug 20

Erasmus

Feb 12

Erckmann-Chatrian

Dec 29

Everybody's Book of Proverbs

Sep 13

Farrar, Frederic

Jul 26

Flammarion, Camille

Nov 25

Fluegel, Maurice

Jan 2

Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king

Jul 20

Francis of Assisi

Apr 15 May 8 May 17

Frederick II

Dec 29

Genevio-Lan

Jan 11

Gizicki, Georg von

Dec 18

Goldstein, Mikhail Yulyevich

Jul 20

Hadji Abdul Gezdi

May 1

Harduin, Henri

Mar 9 Jul 6

Harrison, Frederic

Aug 21

Hartmann, Franz

Nov 13

Heine, Heinrich

Jan 31

Hills, Arnold

Feb 21

Hindu wisdom

Feb 22

Hippocrates

Oct 6

Hitopadesha

Apr 5 Nov 14

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

Jan 24

Hugo, Victor

Dec 22

Humboldt, Wilhelm von

Apr 19

Hume, David

Jun 7

Hus, Jan

Nov 10

Ibrahim Kardovsky

Jan 8

Jefferson, Thomas

Jan 7 Sep 5

Johnson, Samuel

Mar 29 Dec 9

Jonizad Rafezky

Apr 11

Juvenal

Nov 4

Khayyam, Omar

Sep 3

Kossuth, Lajos

Nov 29

La Rochefoucauld, François de

Feb 24

Lactantius

Jun 22

Lamartine, Alphonse de

Jun 20

Larroque, Patrice

Nov 25

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

Feb 26

Laveleye, Émile de

Jan 30

Lecky, William Edward Hartpole

Nov 10

Lesigne, Ernest

Jun 30

Letourneau, Charles

Dec 29

Locke, John

Jan 1 Sep 21

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Sep 13

Lord Herbert

Jul 30

Luther, Martin

Sep 21

Mahabharata, The

Dec 13

Mahmud Hasha

Aug 29

Maimonides

Apr 14

Makovsky, Sergei Konstantinovich

Aug 24

Manchurian saying

Feb 27 Oct 21

Mandeville, Bernard

Sep 24

Manning, Henry Edward

Mar 23

Marcellinus

Feb 15

Marmontel, Jean-François

May 30

Maupassant, Guy de

Jul 6

Menander

Sep 3

Mencius

Nov 27

Menedemus

May 23

Metta Sutta, The

Jan 27

Mickiewicz, Adam

Sep 27

Mishkat al-Masabih

Jul 11

Moch, Gaston

Jun 17

Molinari, Gustave de

Sep 29

Montesquieu

Apr 28 May 27

More, Thomas

May 28

Morris, William

Feb 28

Muslim tradition

Jul 30

Newman, John Henry

Jan 30

Newton, Herbert

Nov 10

Nietzsche, Friedrich

May 21

Origen

Mar 9

Owen, Robert

Jun 4

Paine, Thomas

Mar 23

Paley, William

Feb 23

Paul, Jean

Apr 19

Persian catechism

Mar 12

Persian saying

Jan 5 Aug 23

Pezey

Oct 26

Philemon

Sep 3

Phocylides

Sep 22

Pittacus

Jul 29

Pliny the Younger

Sep 27

Pope, Alexander

Aug 7

Publilius Syrus

Mar 18

Puisieux, Madeleine d'Arsan

May 28

Quetelet, Adolphe

Nov 25

Quran, The

May 9 Jul 23

Ramayana

Oct 20

Richet, Charles

Jun 17 Sep 29

Ritson, Joseph

Sep 24

Robertson, Frederick William

Jul 28

Said bin Hamed

May 12

Saif Muluk

May 7

Seume, Johann Gottfried

Mar 1

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Apr 21

Sinhalese Buddhism

Nov 24

Skovoroda, Grigory

Apr 23

Smiles, Samuel

Apr 4

Spence, Thomas

Nov 12

Springfield

Apr 8

Stowe, Harriet Beecher

Dec 9

Struve, Gustav

Dec 26

Suleiman of Granada

Jan 29

Sutta Pitaka

Nov 27

Swift, Jonathan

Jun 17

Tablets of the Bab

Jun 14 Jun 27 Jul 18

Theodorus

Dec 9

Theognis

Feb 23

Thomas, David

Apr 9

Tocqueville, Alexis de

Mar 21

Turkish proverb

Feb 26

Tyutchev, Fyodor

Sep 30

Upanishads, The

Oct 9

Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, marquis de

Apr 13 May 24 Jun 29 Aug 9

Vigny, Alfred de

Apr 8

Villemain, Abel-François

May 7

Warburton, William

Sep 2

Whim, The

Nov 17

Wilkins, George

May 2

Winstanley, Gerrard

Mar 23 Nov 12

Wolseley, Charles

Feb 10

Yates

Dec 22

Zarathustra

Apr 5 Sep 21

Zimmermann, Wilhelm

Jun 20

Zschokke, Heinrich

May 1

d'Agoult Marie

Sep 3

d'Alembert, Jean le Rond

Feb 15

d'Escherny, François

Apr 26

thoreau

Dec 12