How good is it to remember one’s insignificance: that of a man among billions of men, of an animal amid billions of animals; and one’s abode, the earth, a little grain of sand in comparison with Sirius and others, and one’s life span in comparison with billions on billions of ages? There is only one significance, you are a worker. The assignment is inscribed in your reason and heart and expressed clearly and comprehensibly by the best among the beings similar to you. The reward for doing the assignment is immediately within you. But what the significance of the assignment is or of its completion, that you are not given to know, nor do you need to know it. It is good enough as it is. What else could you desire?
By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.
I ask one thing only: I ask for the right to hope, to suffer as I do. But if even that cannot be, command me to disappear, and I disappear. You shall not see me if my presence is distasteful to you.
Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective, of nature with reason, of the unconscious with the conscious, and therefore art is the highest means of knowledge.
There is only one enduring happiness in life—to live for others.
I often think that men don’t understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.
He soon felt that the fulfillment of his desires gave him only one grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. This fulfillment showed him the eternal error men make in imagining that their happiness depends on the realization of their desires.
He knew she was there by the joy and fear that overwhelmed his heart.
Always the same. Now a spark of hope flashes up, then a sea of despair rages, and always pain; always a pain, always despair, and always the same.
The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.
He felt that he was himself and did not wish to be anyone else. He only wished now to be better than he had been formerly
Having acknowledged the measure of the good to be a pleasure, i. e., beauty, the European upper classes went back in their comprehension of art to the gross conception of the primitive Greeks which Plato had already condemned. And with this understanding of life, a theory of art was formulated.
For a man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite.
I know that my unity with all people cannot be destroyed by national boundaries and government orders.
The very fact of the death of someone close to them aroused in all who heard about it, as always, a feeling of delight that he had died and they hadn’t.
Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.
Art is a microscope in which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul and shows to people these secrets which are common to all.
Don’t seek God in temples. He is close to you. He is within you. Only you should surrender to Him and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.
My piece of bread only belongs to me when I know that everyone else has a share and that no one starves while I eat.
Our whole life is taken up with anxiety for personal security, with preparations for living, so that we really never live at all.
I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to having it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness. And then, on the top of all that, you for a mate, and children perhaps — what more can the heart of man desire?
If one has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient reason for living.
Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.
The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.
Only the truth and its expression can establish that new public opinion which will reform the ancient obsolete and pernicious order of life, and yet we not only do not express the truth we know but often even distinctly give expression to what we ourselves regard as false. If only free men would not rely on that which has no power, and is always fettered — upon external aids; but would trust in that which is always powerful and free — the truth and its expression!
She was in that highly-wrought state when the reasoning powers act with great rapidity: the state a man is in before a battle or a struggle, in danger, and at the decisive moments of life – those moments when a man shows once and for all what he is worth, that his past was not lived in vain but was preparation for these moments.
It seems that it is impossible to live without discovering the purpose of your life. And the first thing which a person should do is to understand the meaning of life. But the majority of people who consider themselves to be educated are proud that they have reached such great height that they cease to care about the meaning of existence.
Wealth brings a heavy purse; poverty, a light spirit.
God forgive me everything!’ she said, feeling the impossibility of struggling…
The best method for a given teacher is the one that is most familiar to the teacher.
A monkey was carrying two handfuls of peas. One little pea dropped out. He tried to pick it up and split twenty. He tried to pick up the twenty and split them all. Then he lost his temper, scattered the peas in all directions, and ran away
Man’s mind cannot grasp the causes of events in their completeness, but the desire to find the causes is implanted in man’s soul.
Love alone is the only reasonable activity or pursuit of humankind….For Love not only annihilates our fear of meaninglessness but empowers us to seek the happiness of others. And this indeed is our greatest happiness.
“What’s this? Am I falling? My legs are giving way under me,” he thought and fell on his back. He opened his eyes, hoping to see how the struggle of the French soldiers with the artilleryman was ending, and eager to know whether the red-haired gunner artilleryman was killed or not, whether the cannons had been taken or saved. But he saw nothing of all that. Above him there was nothing but the sky — the lofty sky, not clear, but still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds creeping quietly over it.
Anna spoke not only naturally and intelligently, but intelligently and casually, without attaching any value to her own thoughts, yet giving great value to the thoughts of the one she was talking to.
Saying that what we call ourselves consist only of our bodies and that reason, soul, and love arise only from the body, is like saying that what we call our body is equivalent to the food that feeds the body. It is true that my body is only made up of digested food and that my body would not exist without food, but my body is not the same as food. Food is what the body needs for life, but it is not the body itself. The same thing is true of my soul. It is true that without my body there would not be that which I call my soul, but my soul is not my body. The soul may need the body, but the body is not the soul.
Some mathematician, I believe, has said that true pleasure lies not in the discovery of truth, but in the search for it.
Go — take the mother’s soul, and learn three truths: Learn What dwells in man, what is not given to man, and what men live by. When thou hast learned these things, thou shalt return to heaven.
We must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, it’s weakening.
Well, pray if you like, only you’d do better to use your judgment.