March 2

The more closely a person unites with the will of God, the firmer this person becomes in his actions.

When a traveler starts on a trip along a road which is under the threat of robbers, he does not go alone. He waits for a friend, someone to be his escort, and then he follows him and so is protected from robbers. A wise man lives his life the same way. But there are so many troubles in this world. How can we stand all of them? What kind of a friend or escort will we find on our way, so that we may pass through our lives without fear? Where should we turn? There is only one answer, only one real friend. That is God.

If you follow God everywhere, you will steer clear of trouble. To follow God is to want what He wants, and not to want what He does not want. How to achieve this? You have to understand and follow His laws.

— After Epictetus

Do not wish for too much, nor think that the things you wish for are the only right or necessary things. You should wish only for those things for which God wishes.

— Henri Amiel

The right path in life is very narrow, but it is important to find it. You can understand it, as well as we can understand it, as a walkway of wood built across a swamp; if you step off it, you will plunge into the swamp of misunderstanding and evil. A wise man returns to the true path at once, but a weak man plunges further and further into the swamp, and it becomes more and more difficult for him to get out. 

December 31

The past does not exist. The future has not begun. The present is an infinitely small point in time in which the already nonexistent past meets the imminent future. At this point, which is timeless, a person's real life exists.

 

"Time passes by!" we say. Time does not exist; only we move.

— After the Talmud

 

Time is behind us, time is before us, but in the present
there is no time.

 

I consist of spirit and body. Time affects the body, but the life of the spirit has no meaning either in the past or in the future. All its life is concentrated in the present.

— Marcus Tullius Cecero

 

Divine spirit is eternal, it exists out of time. Limitless time and space are divided into small, limited parts to be used by limited beings.

— Henri Amiel

 

The soul is put into our body, so that it can understand the notion of date and time. It contemplates this fact and calls it "nature."

— Blaise Pascal

 

Time does not exist. There is only a small and infinite present, and it is only in this present that our life occurs. Therefore, a person should concentrate all his spiritual force only on this present.

December 24

Starting from early childhood, as we age we feel the growth of our spiritual power and the diminution of our physical power.

 

Older people who live spiritual lives ever widen their spiritual horizons, and ever expand their consciences. Older people who live only a daily routine become more and more stupid over the years.

— the Talmud

 

One becomes older in order to become kinder; there is no mistake which I have not already made.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

 

The growth and development of the soul is more important than power and glory.

— Henri Amiel

 

The growth of our physical energy prepares us for spiritual work, for serving God and mankind; this work starts when our body begins to fade away.

 

Grow spiritually and help others to do so; it is the meaning of life.

 

Terrible is the situation of those who cannot perceive spiritual growth in themselves. They can see only physical life, which will disappear in time. When you understand your spiritual being and live with it, then instead of despairing you understand the joy that can never be destroyed, which always grows.

December 22

Nothing seems to check the notion that the way to improve civilization is affected by changing its outer forms. This notion is false, and draws the activity of too many people away from effort that truly can improve our lives.

 

Civilization is first of all a moral thing. Without truth, respect for duty, love of neighbor, virtue, everything is destroyed. The morality of a society is alone the basis of civilization.

— Henri Amiel

 

The proper direction of man's thought is not toward the creation of new laws for government, but toward the acceptance of every person's moral dignity.

— Edmund Yates

 

Socialism, when compared with Christianity, is a rather minor, secondary question about the material needs of the working class. It stands outside the basic questions of human life.

— Fyodor Strakhov

 

We should, first of all, understand that we are all children of the same father, and we should fulfill the same general law: live not for ourselves, but to help others be happy.

— Giuseppi Mazzini

 

When we accept false and violent laws and submit to them, we can neither establish truth nor combat lies in this world.

December 20

The real purpose of Christianity is obvious to all, and it is stronger than the lies which try to pervert it.

 

We should separate the religion that was taught by Jesus from the religion whose subject is Jesus. Then we will understand the real meaning, of the New Testament and follow it.

— Henri Amiel

 

I see a new religion based on mutual trust, which appeals to our deepest selves, and which teaches that a person should love goodness without reward, and that the divine exists in everyone.

 

In different ways and in different tongues, all humanity repeats the words of the Lord's prayer, "Let thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."

— Giuseppi Mazzini

 

Do not think that you will personally see the coming of the kingdom of God. But have no doubt that it will come soon: it is coming closer and closer, without hesitation.

December 14

A person who becomes close to God understands that God lives within him. Angelus, a mystical poet of the seventeenth century, said, "I see God with the same eye with which He sees me."

— Henri Amiel

The soul of a person is the lamp of God.

The Talmud

People do not know what God looks like but they live in Him and He in them.

— Sufi Wisdom

Those who can raise their thoughts to heaven will always have clear days, because the sun always shines above the clouds.

If you are gnawed by desire or fear vou must not believe in God, who is filled with love, and who exists in you. If you believe in Him, you know that you need not wish for anything because the wishes of God always come true; and you need never be afraid of anything, because God fears nothing.

The nature of a soul is so mysterious that no matter how hard we try to understand it we will never be able to define it.

— Heraclitus

Whatever may happen to you, you will never be unhappy if you understand your unification with God. 

October 8

Only people who have never thought about life’s most important issues can believe that everything is possible for the human intellect.

 

There are three types of people. First, there are people who do not believe in anything; then, there are people who believe only in those teachings they were brought up to believe. Finally, there are people who believe in those things which they understand with their hearts, and this last group of people is the wisest and most resolute.

 

All beginnings are mysteries, the mystery of creation.

— Henri Amiel

 

Contemporary science cannot teach you about God and His virtues. The sciences cannot make you virtuous, but they help you on your way.

— Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

Do not pretend to understand something that you do not. It is one of the worst possible things to do.

September 30

The more lonely a person is, the more clearly he can hear the voice of God.

 

The will to accomplish your good intentions depends on whether you voice them. You remember the things of which you spoke in your youth as if they were flowers that you tore out of a flower bed and threw away, and then saw lying on the earth, faded into the dirt.

 

In the important questions of life, we are always alone. Our deepest inner thoughts cannot be understood by others. The best part of the drama that goes on deep in our soul is a monologue, or, better to say, a very sincere conversation between God, our conscience, and ourself.

— Henri Amiel

 

Temporary solitude from all things in this life, the meditation within yourself about the divine, is food as necessary for your soul as material food is for your body.

September 8

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.

— Matthew 11:25-26

The world would be a terrible place without newborn children, who bring with them innocence, and the hope of man's further perfection.

— John Ruskin

Childhood is blessed by heaven because it brings a piece of paradise into the cruelties of life. All of these thousands of everyday births are fresh additions of innocence and purity, which fight against the end of mankind, and against our spoiled nature, and against our complete immersion into sin.

— Henri Amiel

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in ll the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

— Psalms 8:1-2

What time could be better than childhood, and what virtues could be better than innocent joyfulness, and the need for love? They are the purest manifestations of life. You should respect every person, but you should respect a child above all, and not destroy the innocent purity of his soul.

August 29

If, in his soul, a person understands God, he understands his connection to all the world’s people.

Do not be proud, no matter what high position you occupy in life. In you and in me and in every other person lives the same God, the same life force; you look down on me in vain; we are all equal beings.

— Indian Wisdom

I am filled with a great thought: that of the greatness of my soul, its unity with God. My soul is not united with God in submission, but through its ability to understand Him, and through Him, to be eternal.

— Henri Amiel

We are all children of the same father, and it is unnatural not to love our brothers.

August 20

Anyone who is engaged in really important things is very simple because he does not have time to create unnecessary things.

Every desire abates, and every vice grows after it is satisfied.

— Henri Amiel

Every new desire is the beginning of a new wish, the beginning of a new sadness.

— Voltaire

Pleasure, luxury — these things you call happiness, but I think that to wish nothing is the happiness of God, and when you wish to have only small things, then you make yourself closer to this divine and high happiness.

— Socrates

Nature requires small things; the existing law requires many excessive things.

— Lucius Annaeus Seneca

People can live without need and without jealousy only when they lead a life of moderation.

July 2

There is no other domain where the words of our language are so misused as in the criticism of art, especially of false art.

A work of art makes a great impression on us only when it gives us something which, even with all the efforts of our intellect, we cannot understand completely.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Art has such an impact on people that many strange things can happen in their souls: mysteries become clearer; opaque things become evident; complicated things become simple, what is probable becomes necessary. A real artist always simplifies.

— After Henri Amiel

Remember that you cannot do anything wonderful driven by competition; you cannot do anything noble from pride.

— John Ruskin

There are two very clear indications of real science and real art: the first inner sign is that a scholar or an artist works not for profit, but for sacrifice, for his calling; the second, outer sign is that his works are understandable to all people.

Real science studies and makes accessible that knowledge which people at that period of history think important, and real art transfers this truth from the domain of knowledge to the domain of feelings.

Creating art is not as elevated a thing as many people guess, but certainly it is a useful and kind thing to do, especially if it brings people together and arouses kind feelings in them.

May 26

The manner of one’s death can be in accord with the manner of one’s life, and therefore it can be a moral action. An animal simply dies, but a human should return his soul to its creator.

— Henri Amiel

Christ’s greatest words were said immediately before his death, when he forgave his persecutors, who did not understand what they did. The words and actions of a dying person have great power over people, and thus it is important both to live a good life and to die in a good way. A good death takes away the sins of a bad life.

During the minutes of death, a person can see a candle, in the light of which he reads the book of a life filled with problems, lies, evils, and misfortunes. And, in the minutes of dying, this candle lights up all the world with a very bright and clear light, and brightens up all the corners of a person’s life, even those comers which were always covered with darkness; and then it makes some slight noise, and the light goes down and disappears forever.

When you get ready to die, do not worry about the usual things, like following rituals or taking care of everyday business. Be prepared so that you can die in the best way possible. Use all the mighty influence of those powerful strong minutes of death, when a person exists partially in the other world, and his words and deeds have special power over those who remain in this world.

May 22

The greatest changes in the world are made slowly and gradually, not with eruptions and revolutions.

The same things happen in one’s spiritual life.

All great thoughts are living thoughts, and they can grow and be changed. And they change and grow as a tree, and not as a cloud.

—John Ruskin

All really great things are happening in slow and inconspicuous ways.

The process of life should be the birth of a soul. This is the highest alchemy, and this justifies our presence on earth. This is our calling and our virtue.

—Henri Amiel

Our life is unceasing wonder, growth, and development.

—Lucy Malory

There is nothing more harmful for your inner perfection than the understanding that you are doing well. The way to happiness, the way to real moral improvement, moves so invisibly, so inconspicuously, that a person can see his successes only after great, lengthy periods of time.

If you think that you are moving toward perfection and you notice this, then you should know that you are mistaken, that you have stopped and are moving backward.

May 16

Humanity has never lived and cannot live without religion.

Religion is the necessity and prime condition of the life of an intellectual person.

The stronger the religious feeling is, the better one understands what is and what should be the guide of all one’s actions.

It is difficult enough to plug your ears in a big hall full of dancing people; now imagine that you are in an asylum. For one who destroys in himself his religious conscience, all of the religious activity of other people will produce a similar impression. But it is dangerous to think that you are more clever than the majority of religious mankind.

— Henri Amiel

People often say that religion loses its power amidst humanity. This is not true, and this cannot be true. This happens because the people who think so observe only a small group of people, and there are always certain people who do not have religious feelings.

If a person has problems, there can be only one root cause: lack of faith. The same is true within human societies as a whole.

May 15

Truth is not virtue, but the lack of vices.

The most common and the most widely used deceit is the wish to deceive not other people, but yourself. And this kind of life is the most harmful.

There are thousands of ways which lead to deception, and there is only one way which leads to the truth.

— Jean Jacques Rousseau

People should follow only the indisputable truth.

— Confucius

Truthfulness is the only real currency which circulates everywhere.

— Chinese Proverb

Let us be truthful. This is the mystery of rhetoric and virtue, this is the biggest mystery, this is the highest achievement in art and the major law of life.

— Henri Amiel

One of the most common mistakes is to think that you can live without truth. The inner and outer consequences of even the smallest lies are usually more harmful than those small unpleasant things which result from telling the truth directly.

May 10

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.

— Nikolai Gogol

No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

— MATTHEW 6:24

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.

— Henri Amiel

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.

— Lucy Malory

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.