Tag: Leo Tolstoy

The Canon in the Canon

Of all the gospels, the Sermon on the Mount was the portion that impressed me most, and I studied it more often than any other part. Nowhere else does Christ speak with such solemnity; nowhere…

Biden and Putin Would Despise Tolstoy

To destroy governmental violence only one  thing is needed: it is that people should understand that the feeling of patriotism which alone  supports that instrument of violence is a rude,  harmful, disgraceful, and bad feeling,…

The Rule Is Still Golden

Armies will only be diminished and abolished when people cease to trust governments, and themselves seek salvation from the miseries that oppress them, and seek that safety, not by the complicated and delicate combinations of…

Up to Me (and Us)

There is only one way to improve ourselves, and that is by some of us setting an example which the others may pick up and imitate till the new fashion spreads from east to west….

Blinded

I did not know the light and I thought there was no truth in life. But having become convinced that people could only live by this light, I began to seek its source and I…

When Life Starts to Improve

Leo Tolstoy, Spiritual Writings, edited by Charles E. Moore Prophetic witness consists of human deeds of justice and kindness that attend to the unjust sources of human hurt and misery. It calls attention to the…

An Odious Comparison?

Norman Mailer once related a story he came across: Somewhere around the turn of the century, Chekhov visits Tolstoy. He takes the train to the nearest station. Let’s say it’s wintertime. He rents two horses…

Shame

1. “When we came to the camp, Hamzat led the khan into the tent. And I stayed with the horses. I was at the foot of the hill when shooting began in Hamzat’s tent. I…

Tolstoy Summer

✓ A Confession and Other Religious Writings (Penguin) ✓ The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus (Harper Perennial) ✓ Hadji Murat (translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky) ✓ The Kingdom of God Is within You…