March 4

Eating to excess is a vice just as bad as many others. We often do not notice it in others, be-cause most of us are subject to it.

There are sins against others, and sins against yourself. You commit sins against others when you do not respect God's spirit in them; you commit sins against yourself when you do not respect God's spirit in yourself. One of the most common sins against yourself is gluttony.

A person who overeats cannot fight laziness; and a lazy man cannot fight sexual dissipation. All spiritual teachings start with restrictions, with control of the appetite.

God gave food to people, and the devil gave cooks.

Socrates, a wise man, tried to abstain from all unnecessary things. He said that food should serve you in fighting your hunger, and not in developing sophisticated tastes, and he asked his students to follow his rule. He reminded his students about the wise Odysseus, whom Circe, an evil sorceress, could not subject to her magic, because he did not eat to excess. But the members of his crew, his friends, were turned into a herd of pigs by her as soon as they rushed to the abundance of sweet food.

Look at your mouth; through it, when you eat to excess, illnesses enter your body. Behave in such a way that when you finish your dinner, you want to eat a little more.

Eating to excess is not considered to be a sin by many, because it produces no noticeable harm. But there are sins which destroy human dignity, and eating to excess is one such sin. 

March 1

The fear of death in man is the understanding of his sins.

The more spiritual a life a person leads, the less he is afraid of death. For a spiritual person death means setting the spirit free from the body. Such a person knows that the things with which he lives cannot be destroyed.

Only those who do not live are not afraid of death.

If, as Socrates said, death is the state in which we abide during our sleep made permanent, we all know this state, and know there is nothing terrible in it. And if death is a transfer to a better life, as many people think, then death is not evil but a blessing.

We should get ready for death, because it will come, sooner or later. The best thing to do is to live a good life. If you live a good life, you should not be afraid of death.

January 30

When Socrates was asked where he came from, he said that he was a citizen of the  world. He regarded himself as a citizen of the universe.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

When people wanted to kill a bear in the ancient times, they hung a heavy log over a bowl of honey. The bear would push the log away in order to eat the honey. The log would swing back and hit the bear. The bear would become irritated and push the log even harder, and it would return and hit him harder in return. This would continue until the log killed the bear. People behave in the same way when they return evil for the evil they receive from other people. Can't people be wiser than bears?

You should respond with kindness toward evil done to you, and you will destroy in an evil person that pleasure which he derives from evil.

The true teaching of love is strong; it kills evil before evil can grow and become powerful.

January 25

There is a basic knowledge which is necessary for every human  being; until a person has acquired this basic knowledge, all other kinds of knowledge will be harmful for him.

Socrates told his students that in good systems of education, there is a certain limit you should not go beyond. In geometry, he said, it is enough to know how to measure the land when you want to sell it or buy it, or how to share an inheritance, or to divide work among workers. He did not like too many sophisticated sciences; though he knew all of them. He said that sophisticated knowledge requires an extra effort that takes the student's time from the most basic and the most important human pursuit: moral perfection.

— Xenophon

Divert your gaze  from the world of lies. Do not trust your feelings. Only in yourself, only in your impersonal self, can you find the eternal.

— Dhammapada, a book of Buddhist Wisdom

It is better to know several basic rules of life than to study many unnecessary sciences. The major rules of life will stop you from evil and show you the good path in life, but the knowledge of many unnecessary sciences may lead you into the temptation of pride, and stop you from understanding the basic rules of life.

January 23

Among all sins, there is one which completely opposes the major blessing of human life, which is your love for your brother: there is no worse sin than to destroy this major joy of life, by feeling rage and hatred for your brother.

Seneca, a wise man from Rome, said that when you want to escape from your rage, when you feel that it grows, the best thing to do is to stop. Do not do anything: do not walk, do not move, do not speak. If your body or your tongue moves at this moment, then your rage will grow.

Rage is very harmful for all people, but it is most harmful for the man who experiences it.

An evil person damages not only others but himself.
— After Socrates

Your enemy will pay you back with rage, will make you suffer, but the biggest damage to you will be caused by the rage and hatred existing in your heart. Neither your father, nor your mother, nor all your family can make you more good than your heart can when it forgives and forgets its abuse.

— Dhammapada, a book of Buddhist Wisdom

Your rage cannot be justified by anything. The reason for your rage is always inside you.

September 23

No matter how big mankind's store of knowledge seems to me in comparison with our previous ignorance, it is only an infinitely small part of all possible knowledge.

 

Socrates did not have the weakness of many scholars, the desire to know about all possible things, to learn the origins and explanations of things - what the Sophists call "the nature of things" - and to uncover the origins of the celestial bodies. Socrates said, "Is it true that people are so concerned with these earthly things? People wrongly think that they should know everything. They think that they can despise the most necessary and important fields of knowledge, and penetrate the mysteries that do not belong to us."

— Xenophon

 

Not only is real science not hostile to religion, in fact real science always supports it.

— John Ruskin

 

Knowledge is limitless, and the most scholarly and educated person is as far from true knowledge as an uneducated peasant.

— John Ruskin

 

We cannot imagine the scope of our ignorance, just as a blind man cannot imagine darkness until he can see.

— Immanuel Kant

 

It is better to know less than necessary than to know more than necessary. Do not fear the lack of knowledge, but truly fear unnecessary knowledge which is acquired only to please vanity.

July 9

People mistakenly think that virtue lies in the knowledge of many things. What is important is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge.

Socrates thought that stupidity was incompatible, with wisdom, but he never said that ignorance was stupidity.

— Xenophon

We live in the age of philosophy, science, and intellect. Huge libraries are open for everyone. Everywhere we have schools, colleges, and universities which give us the wisdom of the people from many previous millennia. And what then? Have we become wiser for all this? Do we better understand our life, or the meaning of our existence? Do we know what is good for our life?

— Jean Jacques Rousseau

Reading too much is harmful to your independence of thought. The greatest thinkers I’ve met among scholars are people who do not read too much.

— George Lichtenberg

Do not fear the lack of knowledge, fear false knowledge. All evil in this world comes from false knowledge.

Knowledge born in argument and discussion is to be doubted.

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.