June 30

As soon as a person asks himself the question, “How do I live my life in the best way?” then all other questions are answered.

Real living takes place not in the domain of outward change, but in the inner domain, where changes can hardly be observed, in our spiritual life.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

— Luke 10:41-42

Instead of saving humanity, every person should save himself.

— Alexander Herzen

The more people believe that others can improve their lives, the slower any improvement will occur.

June 29

Depression is a state of the soul in which you can see no sense either in your own life or in the life of the world. This state is not only painful for the people around you, but it can influence them, and a truly good person deals with this unpleasantness when he is alone. When you have bad spirits or are in a low mood, or you are irritated, you should be so in solitude.

When everything you see appears in dark, gloomy shades, and seems baleful, and you want to tell others only bad and unpleasant things, do not trust your perceptions. Treat yourself as though you were drunk. Take no steps and actions until this state has disappeared.

You should never feel depressed.

A man should always feel happy; if he is unhappy, it means he is guilty.

O Lord, help me to be always happy arid to rejoice following and following your will.

Both our physical sufferings and periods of depressions are part of our life in this world, and we should patiently wait until they are over, or our life is over.

June 28

The family relationship is only good and firm and giving of virtue to people when it goes beyond family and is also religious, and all the members of the family believe in one God and His law. Otherwise, the family is the source not of pleasure but of suffering.

One of the most common explanations for bad deeds is the family name. People steal, make bribes, do many other nasty things in life, all of which can be explained by their love for their family.

Family love is a selfish feeling, and therefore it can justify bad, unworthy actions.

And it was told him by certain, which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee. And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

— Luke 8:20-21

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

— Matthew 10:37

In family love, in the moral high meaning, there is nothing good or bad, just as in self-love. Both are natural. Love of your family, as well as of yourself, when it surpasses its limits, can be a vice, but it can never be a virtue, because it’s a natural feeling.

June 27

A good life is given only to those who make efforts to achieve this.

In order to have a good life, you should not be afraid of any good deeds. You should have no less power or strength for small acts than for the biggest and greatest good deed.

In order not to pour out a vessel full of water, you should hold it evenly. In order to have a razor sharp, you should sharpen it. The same should happen with your soul if you are looking for real goodness.

— Lao-Tzu

If there is something great in you, it will not appear on your first call. It will not appear and come to you easily, without any work and effort.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

— Matthew 7:7-8

Try to live a good life in accord with the virtues that are set before you. Perhaps this is a difficult thing, but with time it becomes more and more joyful.

If you need goodness, follow God’s law. And to follow the law of God is possible only by making an effort. Not only is this effort rewarded with a happy life, but even the effort itself gives the biggest blessing of life.

June 26

Love provides a person with the purpose of his life. Intellect shows him the means to achieve that purpose.

In the scheme of the world, a person is no more than a pine cone, or a weak herb, or a bit of swamp grass, but he is a grass which possesses some intellect.

— Blaise Pascal

Man differs from other animals only in his intellect; some people try to develop it and others neglect it, just as they try to reject those other qualities which differentiate them from the animals.

— Eastern Wisdom

I praise Christianity because it develops, strengthens, and elevates my intellectual nature.

— William Ellery Channing

If a person lacks intellect, he can not distinguish bad from good, and so he can neither truly seek nor truly have real goodness.

June 25

It is very useful to notice the impression which our life and deeds make upon other people.

You should live so that other people think well of you and you think well of yourself.

— Lucy Malory

The very shortcomings which make others difficult and unbearable mean less in yourself. You do not see them, and when you speak of other people having these drawbacks, you do not notice that you are describing yourself.

— Jean De La Bruyère

The simplest, quickest, and surest means to becoming known as a virtuous person is to work on yourself, to actually be virtuous. Examine each virtue, and you will see that they all were achieved with work and exercise.

— Socrates

One man keeps silence, and people discuss him. Another speaks a lot, and people discuss him. A third speaks a little, and people discuss him. There is no such thing as a person who is not being discussed or scolded.

— Dhammapadda, a book of Buddhist Wisdom

Do you call a person happy if he finds his strength in his children or in his friends, or in other things which are impermanent? In one second, his prosperity can be ruined. Seek no other support than your inner self and God.

— Demosthenes

Never try to justify your deeds.

June 24

Understanding or mindfulness of death teaches one to choose the things which are complete or could be completed; and those things are the most important.

You could die very quickly; but yet you have time to rid yourself of your passions. Be humble to everyone.

— Marcus Aurelius

A wise person thinks more about life than about death.

— Benedictus Spinoza

There is no death for the spirit; therefore, a person who lives a spiritual life is freed from death.

Do you worry about the moment when you die? Our life is only a moment in eternity. Think and you will see that you have eternity behind you and before you, and between these two huge abysses, what difference does it make whether you live three days or three centuries?

— Marcus Aurelius

Whenever you ask whether you should behave in this way or the other, ask yourself, what would you do if you knew that you could die this evening, and nobody would find out about your action? Death spurs people to finish their affairs; among all actions, there is only one type which is complete, and that is love which seeks no reward.

June 23

Only he who accepts that the essence or meaning of his life is not material but spiritual can be free.

A slave who is happy with his state is a slave twice over, because not only his body but his soul is enslaved.

Oh God, while I stay on this earth I want to be that which I am.

— Epictetus

Peace is a great blessing if it can be reached, but if peace is reached by slavery, it becomes a misfortune and not a blessing. Peace is the freedom which is based on the acceptance of every person’s rights, and slavery is the negation of rights, and of human dignity. Therefore, we should sacrifice everything to achieve peace, but even more, to get rid of slavery.

— After Marcus Tullius Cicero

Remember that you are more free if you change your opinion and follow those who have corrected your mistakes, than if you are stubborn about your mistakes.

— Marcus Aurelius

There is only one real knowledge: that which helps us to be free. Every other type of knowledge is mere amusement.

— Vishnu Purana; Indian Wisdom

There is no middle way: either be a slave of people or of God.

June 22

There is only one true religion for all of mankind.

The difference between religions — what a strange expression. Certainly there can be different faiths, and beliefs in historical events which are passed from one generation to another to strengthen religion, in the same way there can be different religious books — the Sutras, Vedas, Koran, etc. But there can be only one religion, and it is real for all times.

— Immanuel Kant

We can believe in a thing, we can know that it exists, even if we cannot understand it with our intellect, or explain it with words.

If you are a Muslim, go and live as a Christian, if you are a Christian live as a Jew; if you are Catholic, live as an Orthodox — whatever religion you have, hold the same respect for people of different religions. If your speech together does not arouse or excite you to indignation and if you can freely communicate with them, you have achieved peace. It is said that the object of every religion is the same: all people look for love, and all the world is a place of love. Then why should we speak about the difference between the Muslim church and the Christian church?

— Islamic Wisdom

Do not fear hesitations but study the different faiths and religions intellectually.

June 21

The misery of the unintellectual life brings us to the need for an intellectual life.

Before, I lived in sin, and I saw that the majority of people around me lived in the same way. Like a robber, I knew I was unhappy and I suffered, and that people around me were unhappy and they suffered; and I didn’t see any way out of this situation except for suicide or death. Life seemed terrible to me. And then I heard the words of Christ and I understood them. And life ceased to seem an evil, and instead of desperation I felt a happiness for life which surpasses even death.

We can understand wisdom in three ways: first, by meditation; this is the most noble way. Secondly, by being influenced by someone or following someone; this is the easiest way. Third is the way of experience; this is the most difficult way.

— Confucius

When you suffer, think not on how you can escape suffering, but concentrate your efforts on what kind of inner moral and spiritual perfection this suffering requires.

All the misfortunes of mankind collectively and individually are not useless; they bring people and individuals and nations in different ways closer to the purpose which is set before them: the appearance of God, for every person in himself, and in all mankind.

June 20

There was a time when people ate human flesh and found nothing wrong in it, even now there are such wild people. People stopped eating human meat, little by little, now they cease to eat the meat of animals little by little, though it has taken time. But the time will come when people will have the same disgust for the meat of animals as they now have for human flesh.

— After Alphonse Lamartine

It is terrible to throw little children to other people as foundlings, to organize gladiators’ fights, to torture prisoners, and to do other such uncivilized deeds. In the future, the time will come when it will be unacceptable to kill animals and take their dead bodies as your food.

— Dr. Johann Georg Von Zimmermann

Do not raise your hand against your brother, and do not spill the blood of any living creatures who live on this earth, neither human beings nor pets nor wild animals nor birds. In the depth of your soul some divine voice stops you from spilling this blood. There is life in it. You cannot return this life.

— Alphonse Lamartine

In our time, the killing of animals for pleasure or food is almost a crime, and hunting and eating meat are not just trivial things, but bad actions, which like any other bad actions lead to many other actions which are worse.

June 19

Your conscience is your understanding of your spiritual origins; only when you possess such awareness will it be a real guide in your life.

There are two different beings within you, one which is blind and sensual, and another which can see and is spiritual.

This spiritual being is called conscience and can be compared with the needle of a compass which points at goodness at one end, and at the other, evil. We cannot perceive this compass until we stray from goodness, but as soon as we do something bad, then we feel this pull away from the direction of goodness in life.

God gave us the consciousness of mankind as a whole, as well as our own consciousness as individuals; with the help of these two things, as with two wings we can fly higher and come closer to God and to understand the truth.

—Giuseppi Mazzini

Oh, conscience: you are the deathless voice of heaven, and a true guide and judge of goodness. You make a person resemble God.

—Jean Jacques Rousseau

Youth is the time of passions and infatuations, and yet listen now to the voice of your conscience and accept it as the greatest authority. Always ask yourself, do my actions coincide with my conscience? And do not be afraid to arrive at meanings different from other people’s.

—Theodore Parker

Fear all that is not accepted by your conscience.

June 18

Understanding our duty provides us with the understanding of our divine soul. And, too, the understanding of our divine soul gives us the understanding of duty.

There is in our soul something that, if we see it as it is and give it the proper attention, will always give as great pleasure; this something is the moral disposition or quality which was given to us at our creation.

— Immanuel Kant

People can reach heavenly joy: those pure ones who are filled with the desire for a good life receive pleasures in their body, in their material life. When your mind and your heart are pure, then the divine will be opened for you.

— Brahmin Indian Wisdom

If your heart is filled with virtue, then you will find happiness and beauty.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The voice of your conscience is the voice of God.

June 17

The misfortunes of war and preparations for war bear little relation to the reasons given to explain war: the real reasons are usually so insignificant that they are not even worth discussion, and they are completely unknown to those who die.

The madness of contemporary war is justified by dynastic interest, common nationalism, European equilibrium, or ambitions. If there are ambitions in people, this is a very strange way to sustain it, with all the crimes which happen to people during war: destruction of homes, plunder, and mass murder.

— Anatole France

You ask me, is it necessary for civilized people to make war? And I tell you not only is it “already” unnecessary, but it was never necessary, and not sometimes but always it destroys the normal development of humanity, destroys justice, and stops progress.

— Galston Mohk

Only during a period of the war does it become obvious how millions of people can be manipulated. People, millions of people, are filled with pride while doing things which those same people actually consider stupid, evil, dangerous, painful, and criminal, and they strongly criticize these things — but continue doing them.

The reasons which governments give for wars are always screens, behind which lie completely different reasons and motives.

June 16

The improvement of society can be achieved only by the moral improvement of individuals.

We live in an epoch of discipline, culture, and civilization, but not in an epoch of morality. In the present state, we can say that the happiness of the people grows, and yet the unhappiness of the people increases as well. How can we make people happy when they are not educated to have high morals? They do not become wise.

— Immanuel Kant

There can be only one way to fight the general evil of life: it is in the moral, religious, and spiritual perfection of your own life.

June 15

To love God means to love the highest possible good which we can imagine in all things.

People often say, “I do not understand love of God, what is love of God?” It would be more exact to say, “cannot understand love in this world without love of God.”

Real love of God is a moral feeling based on a clear understanding of His high, superior being; love of God coincides with love of virtue, truth, and kindness.

— William Ellery Channing

A person who understand the law but who is far from the love of God is like a bank official who has keys for the inside of his building but not the key for the front door.

— The Talmud

The commandments of God should be followed because of love of God, not because of fear of God.

— The Talmud

If you love a person without loving God, which is the goodness inside of him, then you plant the seeds for future disappointments and sufferings with this love.

Those who say that they love God but dislike their neighbors are lying to people; those who love their neighbors but don’t love God are lying to themselves.

Only perfection is worth complete love. In order to feel complete love, we can either delude ourselves that some imperfect object of our love is “perfection” or we can love perfection, which is God.

June 14

When you make an effort not to blame other people, your life becomes much easier, but very few people make this small effort.

In the lives of the saints, there is the story of the hermit who saw in his dream a monk who had died long ago, and who had been rather weak in his life. The monk was in an especially lovely and honored part of paradise. The hermit asked, “How were you granted this place, with all your weaknesses?” and the monk answered that it was because he had never blamed, not a single person in his life.

Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

— Romans 2:1

The more strictly and mercilessly you judge yourself the more just and kind you will be in the judgment of others.

— Confucius

Do not glorify in blaming and despising other people. A kind person should hide the shame of others, even those who have harmed him. Do not remember one who repents his former sins.

— The Talmud

Unless you yourself are sinless, do not say a single word about the sins of others, but be quiet. If you make it a habit not to blame others, you will feel the growth of the ability to love in your soul, and you will see the growth of goodness in your life.

June 13

Intellect is the quality that makes us different from animals.

Buddha said: “In meditation, in speech, in life, in studies, I never forget about the most important thing: the requirements of the intellect.”

The moral and the intellectual are always in harmony.

If a self-confident man talks to a wise man, he will not understand the truth, just as a spoon will not understand the truth when it gets into the mouth.

— Eastern Wisdom

I cannot cause any improvement in anyone except with the help of the goodness and kindness which already is inherent in this person.

— Immanuel Kant

People spoil their life who neglect their intellect and say that it cannot guide them.

Intellect is the same in all people, and communication is based on intellect; therefore every man must correspond to its requirements.

June 12

Suffering is the necessary condition for spiritual and physical growth.

Really, really I tell you, you will cry, and you will fall, and the world will be glorified. You will be sad, and your sadness will become joy. A woman is in pain when she gives birth to a child, and after the birth she doesn’t remember, and she is joyful.

— John 16:20-21

Very often we say that we don’t like suffering, that we have too much suffering, but sufferings, all kinds of sufferings, are always good for us. Sometimes, we even see that it is useful to suffer: children suffer when they grow, or when it is necessary that they clean an injury filled with filth. We cannot see the usefulness of moral sufferings, but those sufferings, too, make us better and closer to God.

We grow thus: We come closer to God and God comes closer to us as our will becomes united with the will of God.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

You should look in suffering for the seeds of your future spiritual growth, or the bitterness of suffering will be severe.

June 11

All material changes in our everyday life are small in comparison with those in our spiritual life. There could be a change in feelings and actions, there could be a change in thoughts and ideas. In order to change your thoughts and ideas, you should concentrate your conscious mind on your spiritual requirements.

Every thought a person dwells upon, whether he expresses it or not, either damages or improves his life.

— Lucy Malory

To vanquish sin, you must accept that the root of each sin is in a bad thought. We are all only the consequences of what we think.

— Buddha

We regret losing a purse full of money, but a good thought which has come to us, which we’ve heard or read, a thought which we should have remembered and applied to our life, which could have improved the world — we lose this thought and promptly forget about it, and we do not regret it, though it is more precious than millions.

June 10

There is something in the soul which cannot die, which cannot be affected by death.

He who defeats others is strong, he who defeats himself is powerful, and he who knows when he dies that he will not be destroyed is eternal.

—Lao-Tzu

People are born and live only as manifestations, or pieces of God; therefore they cannot be completely destroyed. They can disappear from before our eyes, but they cannot be destroyed. One person was within my sight for a long time, another went out of my sight very quickly; but I cannot say that the first person existed more and

the second less.

It doesn’t matter whether a man passes by my window quickly or slowly. I know definitely that this man existed in the time before I saw him and that he will exist in the time after he has disappeared from my sight.

He who knows that the foundation of this life is spirit is out of danger. When he closes the gates of his senses at the end of his life, he has no troubles.

—Lao-Tzu

Real life exists outside time and space, therefore, death can change the manifestation of life in this world, but it cannot destroy life itself.

Try to live with the part of your soul which understands eternity, which is not afraid of death. And that part of your soul is love.

June 9

Christian society, as it now exists, doesn’t follow Christian law in its real meaning.

Almost every effort of the human mind is directed, not toward lightening the work of the laborer, but toward making more pleasant the idleness of the leisured.

If a person could look at our world from a distance he would see so much stupidity and hatred that he would probably cry. We do so many funny and stupid and impoverished hateful deeds, One person hunts wild animals and becomes an animal himself, another feeds donkeys and horses to carry loads, and despises people who die of hunger.

Other people spend a great deal of money to create huge houses and do nothing to help the homeless. Some people seek only profits, others spend only for dissipation, and others steal.

In all of these excesses, all of this criminal behavior, we see people who only want to take care of themselves, without a thought about what is most necessary in this world.

— Saint John Chrysostom

It defies the laws of nature for a child to rule an adult, or a fool to guide a wise man. Likewise, it is against the law of nature that a small group of people should be overindulged when a huge, hungry crowd’s most basic needs aren’t met.

There is only one thing in this world which is worth dedicating all your life. This is creating more love among people and destroying barriers which exist between them.