A Calendar of Wisdom

Kindness is necessary in relationships with people. If you ire not kind to a person, you are not fulfilling your major obligation.

You have to respect every person, no matter how miserable or ridiculous he or she may be. You should remember that in every person lives the same spirit which lives in us.

Do not be cruel of heart to those who are tempted, but try to console them, just as you would like to be comforted.

(1) Do not postpone for tomorrow what you can do today. (2) Do not force another person to do what you can do by yourself. (3) Pride costs more than all that is necessary for food, drink, shelter, or dress. (4) We suffer so much, thinking about what could have happened, but not about what has actually happened. (5) If you lose your temper, count up to ten before you do or say anything. If you haven’t calmed down, then count to a hundred; and if you have not calmed down after this, count up to a thousand.

The kinder and the more thoughtful a person is, the more kindness he can find in other people. Kindness enriches our life; with kindness mysterious things become clear, difficult things become easy, and dull things become cheerful.

Christian teaching is so simple that even small children can understand its meaning. Those people cannot understand it, and only those, who want to seem and to be called Christians without being real Christians.

Buddha said, “A man who starts to live for his soul is like a man who brings a lantern into a dark house. The darkness disappears at once. You have to be persistent in this, and your soul will have this light.”

Christ expressed all His teachings in His last commandment: “Love each, other, as I loved you. Everyone will see that you are my disciples, if you love each other.” He did not say, “If you believe,” but “If you love.” Faith can change with time, because our knowledge is constantly changing. Love, on the contrary, never changes; love is eternal.

My religion is love to all living beings.

In order to fulfill Christianity, we have to destroy its perversions and restore its purity.

Knowledge is real knowledge only when it is acquired by the efforts of your intellect, not by memory.

Only when we forget what we were taught do we start to have real knowledge.

A constant flow of thoughts expressed by other people can stop and deaden your own thought and your own initiative. . . . That is why constant learning softens your brain. ... Stopping the creation of your own thoughts to give room for the thoughts from other books reminds me of Shakespeare’s remark about his contemporaries who sold their land in order to see other countries.

A thought can advance your life in the right direction only when it answers questions which were asked by your soul. A thought which was first borrowed from someone else and then accepted by your mind and memory does not really much influence your life, and sometimes leads you in the wrong direction.

Read less, study less, but think more. Learn, both from your teachers and from the books which you read, only those things which you really need and which you really want to know.

The basis of all education is the establishment of our relationship to the beginning of all things, and the conclusions about our behavior which may be drawn from this.

As we bring up our children, we have to remember that we are caretakers of the future. By improving their education, we improve the future of mankind, the future of this world.

I think that the major obligation of parents and educators is to give children an understanding of the divine beginning that exists within them.

Religious upbringing is the basis of all education.

Perfection is impossible without humility. “Why should I strive for perfection, if I am already good enough?”

The higher the position you occupy among other people, the more humble you should be. Many people live in height and glory, but the mysteries of this world can be revealed only to those who are humble. Do not seek out complication. Treat your duty with respect. Do not study what you should not. More things have already been revealed to you than you can understand.

Some of your friends praise you, and others blame and criticize you; be closer to those who blame you and further from those who praise you.

When an arrow does not hit its target, the marksman blames himself, not another person. A wise man behaves in the same way.

Remember all the bad things which you have done, and try to avoid doing bad things again. Remembering only your good deeds will interfere with your doing good in the future.

There are people who take responsibility for making decisions for others and determining their relationship to God and to the world; and there are people, the overwhelming majority of them, who give this authority to the others, and blindly believe in everything they are told. Both groups of people commit an equal crime.

We are all like children who first repeat the unquestionable “truth” told to us by our grandmothers, then the “truth” told to us by our teachers, and then, when we become older, the “truth” told to us by prominent people.

A man should use that spiritual heritage which he has received from the wise and holy people of the past, but he should test everything with his intellect, accepting certain things and rejecting others.

Every person should define for himself his attitude to this world and to God.

Faith is the understanding of the meaning of life and the acceptance of those duties and responsibilities connected to it.

Who is a good man? Only a man who has faith is good. What is faith ? This is when your will is in consent with the world’s conscience and the world’s wisdom.