A Calendar of Wisdom

A person who tries to find good outside himself, either in this life or in the one to come, is making a mistake.

I went along all the earth, searching for a guiding light. I went all over without rest, at night and during the day, and then I heard from a preacher, who opened the truth to me, that the answer is inside my soul, and that the light which I was looking for everywhere in the world is inside me.

There are no coincidences, either in life or in one’s fate. A man creates his own destiny.

You either make evil for yourself, or you escape sin and purify yourself; you are bad or evil, or you are pure; and nobody can save you except for yourself.

Your body is a city which is full of good and evil; and you are the king of this city and your intellect is your best counselor.

The happiness or unhappiness of a man does not depend upon the amount of property or gold he owns. Happiness or misery is in one’s soul. A wise man feels at home in every country. The whole universe is the home of a noble soul.

Nothing can give a man strength when he is looking for salvation other than his own effort.

There is nothing more attractive than humbleness and kindness. But you should not seek kindness which advertises itself.

A wise man said to another man who was chasing him, “If you have any grievance against me, tell me now, before we enter the city, otherwise other people will hear it and they will attack you.”

The rivers and seas are the masters of the valleys across which they flow. This is because they are lower than the valleys. In the same way, a person who wants to be higher than other people should be lower than they; if he wants to guide people, he should be below them.

A wise man was told that he was considered to be a bad person. He answered, “It is good that they do not know everything about me, because otherwise they could say worse things about me.”

Try to avoid making judgments about yourself, especially by comparing yourself with others. Compare yourself only with perfection.

Life is constant change; it ought to consist of weakening the material and increasing the spiritual side of our existence.

Seek to learn constantly while you live; do not wait in the faith that old age by itself will bring wisdom.

Virtue always lasts longer than other qualities, and it always starts from the beginning.

The kindness of a dove is not virtue. A dove is not more virtuous than an eagle. Virtue begins only when there is an effort. If God wanted to, he could have made us one nation, but he tests us. Wherever you go, in all places, try as much as you can to be kind, to be good, and then the day will come when God will unite all of us.

We cannot stop on the way to self-perfection. As soon as you notice that you have a bigger interest in the outer world than in yourself, then you should know that the world moves behind you.

Only spiritual things exist in reality, and the material world is only an illusion.

If you want to save your soul, forget about your comfort.

Truly, only those things which are spiritual are real. Those things which can be seen and felt are only an illusion.

Life is given to us not only for pleasures.

In the long run, there is only one subject worthy of study, and this is the different forms of transformation of the spirit. All other subjects and studies can be brought to these basic things.

I can send my thoughts to many different people at once; they will cross the seas and they will go to different lands if there is God’s will, and the power of love and wisdom. My thoughts by themselves are a spiritual power; they can exist at the same time in thousands of places. My body, however, can only exist at one place at one time.

It seems to us that the most clear, understandable, and obviously existing things are not all there is. There is something else: unclear, unknown, contradictory, and nonexistent.

The moving force of all perfection, both for individuals and for whole nations, is not the understanding of what exists in this world, but the understanding of what can be achieved.

The weaker my hands, the more effort I should make to achieve perfection.

“You must be as perfect as your father in heaven.”

The perfection of the highest kindness is the goal for which all mankind strives. Christian learning about perfection is a tool for all mankind.

A person who sails far from the shore can see some shorelines or cliffs. But when sailors go really far away from the shore, they can be guided only by the stars high up in the sky, and the compass which indicates their direction, and both these things are given to us.

No matter how low a person may fall, he will always be able to see that perfection toward which he should move.