April 10

The holy spirit which exists in people is liberated more and more. This will change our existing world order.

Real science shows us how to apply our religious faith to our outer lives. Art shows us how to apply it to our feelings. The further any purpose the faster we should work toward it.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

The longer I live, the more things I must complete.

— William Ellery Channing

The more we understand our divine nature, the more its rules should be fulfilled in our actions. 

March 26

The most important change that can occur in a person's life is a change in their faith.

Individuals die, but the wisdom they have obtained in their lives does not die with them. Mankind keeps all this wisdom, and a person uses the wisdom of those who lived before him. The education of mankind reminds me of the creation of the ancient pyramids, in that every-one who lives puts another stone in the foundation.

We are temporary visitors in this world; after we are educated, we are called to different places, and we pass away. But the general education of mankind goes on, very slowly but without interruption.

— After Giuseppe Mazzini

It is a big mistake to think that faith is immutable, that it does not change over generations. The longer mankind exists, its faith becomes simpler and stronger. And the simpler and stronger our faith becomes, the better we live. If you believe that faith is the same for all times and that it cannot be changed, you might just as well believe that those fairy tales and proverbs and children's stories which your grandmother told you when you were a small baby are real, and that you ought to believe in them all your life. 

March 17

We can improve this world only by distributing the true faith among the world's people.

A society cannot live without a united faith and purpose. All social activity cannot really improve our social life if it is not based on the foundations established by religion.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

The apostles lived united, in such a way that they shared one heart and soul. If they had not, no one today would know about Christianity. When some pagans did not accept Christianity, it was because they did not see complete unification and love among Christians. We Christians are to blame when other people do not accept the Christian faith. 

— After Saint John Chrysostom

Christianity in its pure and sincere form works like dynamite: it blows up old mountains and opens up new horizons.

If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: you have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only one thing: you can become better yourself. 

February 28 and February 29

February 28

Art is a means of unifying people.

If beautiful art does not express moral ideas which unite people, then it is not art, but only entertainment. People need to be entertained in order to distance themselves from disappointment in their lives.

— Immanuel Kant

It is possible to imagine that art could die, but it is not possible to imagine that real art could live if it became a slave of wealth that laughed at the poor.

Art is one of the most powerful means of convincing people of anything, both good and bad; therefore, you must be very careful in its use.

An artist is one of two things: he is either a high priest, or a more or less smart entertainer.

— Giuseppi Mazzini

Meditations or discussions about art are the most useless pastimes known. Those who really know art know that art can speak well with its own language, and that to speak about art with words is useless. Most people who speak about art do not understand or feel real art.

February 29

To move, you must know where to go, in terms both of everyday motion and of your whole life. In order to live a good life, you must know where life leads.

Perfection is of God. To wish for perfection is of man.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Life is not given to us that we might live idly without work. No, our life is a struggle and a journey. Good should struggle with evil; truth should struggle with falsehood; freedom should struggle with slavery; love should struggle with hatred. Life is movement, a walk along the way of life to the fulfillment of those ideas which illuminate us, both in our intellect and in our hearts, with divine light.

— After Giuseppe Mazzini

The ideal is within you, and the obstacle to reaching this ideal is also within you. You already possess all the material from which to create your ideal self.

— Thomas Caryle

We should believe that the goodness which exists in us and in this world will be fulfilled. This is the major condition to make it happen.

November 3

There is only one real law, the law of God, which is the same for all of mankind. Human law can be valid only when it is in harmony with the law of God.

The first and most difficult obstruction to the fulfillment of the law of God is the fact that our society's existing laws are completely opposed to this law.

Those human laws are good which are based on the law of God. Those human laws are bad which contradict the laws of God; we should change these laws.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

In order to study the most important questions of life, everyone should destroy the prejudices and lies which were created by previous centuries in relation to all serious questions in life.

The law of God contradicts human law. So what should we do? Should we hide the law or and proclaim human law? People have done this for almost nineteen centuries, and the contradiction becomes stronger and stronger. There is only one solution: to replace the existing laws with the law of God. 

October 25

A person can understand his purpose in the same way as he understands his dignity. Only a religious person can understand his purpose in life.

A king asked a holy man, “Do you remember about me?” The holy man answered, “Yes, I think about you, when I forget about God.”

— Muslih-Ud-Din Saadi

We fulfill the law of God when we feel the lives of others as our own life.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

The freedom of a person is a great thing, and even the freedom of a whole nation begins from the freedom of a single individual.

You should respect freedom in yourself, and in your neighbor, and in all people.

Only he who understands himself as a spiritual being can understand the spiritual dignity of other people. Such a person will not lower himself with any act which is not worthy of a spiritual person.

April 12

At a certain level of self-awareness, a person understands something supernatural in himself.

God exists because we exist. You can call it any other name, but there is no doubt that the superior life which created us, exists. And you can call the source of this life God, or give it any other name.

— GIUSEPPE MAZZINI

God exists only for those who look for Him. Start looking: you will find Him in you and yourself in Him.

Looking for God is like pulling a net in the water. When you pull the net, it is heavy and full of water, and yet when you pull it out, there is nothing in it. When you seek God with your intellect and your actions, God exists in you, and as soon as you decide that you have found God, and stop and become satisfied, you have lost him.

— FYODOR STRAKHOV

It is surprising that I could not see a very simple truth: behind and above this world and our lives, there is someone who knows why this world exists and why we exist in this world. And our lives are as bubbles in boiling water, which appear, rise to the surface, pop, and disappear.

The unity of all living beings exists in this world where everybody and everything quietly seeks God. It is only unbelieving atheists who see eternal silence.

— JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Just because a person does not understand God, he has no right to draw the conclusion that God does not exist.

April 10

The holy spirit which exists in people is liberated more and more. This will change our existing world order.

Real science shows us how to apply our religious faith to our outer lives. Art shows us how to apply it to our feelings.

The further any purpose the faster we should work toward it.

— GIUSEPPE MAZZINI

The longer I live, the more things I must complete.

— WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING

The more we understand our divine nature, the more its rules should be fulfilled in our actions.

July 7

To deny God is to deny yourself as a spiritual and intellectual being.

I know God and soul not by their definition, but in another way entirely. Striving to define God destroys this knowledge in me. I know that God exists, that my soul exists; this knowledge is clear to me because I was given it.

I have not the slightest doubt about the existence of God, if I ask: What am I? Who am I? My legs are not me; my arms are not me; my head is not me; my feelings are not me; even my thought is not me.

Then what am I? I am myself, I am my soul. No matter which side I approach this question, I inevitably come to God. The beginning of my life is God, the beginning of my existence is God. The same with the soul.

If I want to know the truth, I know that at the beginning of all is my soul; if I want to understand my feeling of love and necessity for goodness, then I again find the source of this in my soul.

God exists. We should not prove this, to deny God is madness. God lives in my conscience, in the conscience of all humanity, in all our universe, and we talk to God in the most important moments of sadness or joy.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

Life in this world goes according to somebody’s will—someone performs special actions upon all life in this world, and touches all our lives. That which performs these actions is what we call God.

July 3

A person is enslaved to the extent he believes that his life has only a physical beginning.

Nothing can be done without faith. Hesitation can kill a person, or it can destroy whole nations. Why is it so difficult to give liberation to people? Because when people do not have a deep faith they are not completely sure about their rights.

— F. Robert De Lamennais

They say that the highest good is freedom. And if freedom is goodness, then how can a free person be unhappy? If you see a person who is not happy you should know that he is not a free man; he is a slave of something. In order to he completely free, you should be ready to give to God all those things which you have received from him. You should be ready to unite your will with that of God.

— After Epictetus

When you have no freedom, then your life becomes the life of an animal.

— Giuseppe Mazzini

Human dignity and freedom are our constant necessities. So, let us keep them with us, or let us die with dignity.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

If you feel that you are not free, look for the reason inside you.