“A Calendar of wisdom” is a collection of words of wisdom translated from their original source into Russian by Leo Tolstoy. Peter Sekirin later translated these collections from Russian into English. Here are some words of wisdom taken from Sekirin’s translated version.

(1)       A person who has spoiled his stomach will criticise his meal saying that the food is bad; the same thing happens with people who are not satisfied with their lives in this world.

(2)       We do not have the right to be unhappy with our life. If it seems to us that we are not satisfied with life, we should see this as a reason to be unsatisfied with ourselves.

(3)       Cruel people are busy all the time, as if to find justification for the cruelty of their dealings.

(4)       A good life is given only to those who make efforts to achieve it.

(5)       A man should always feel happy; if he is unhappy, it means he is guilty.

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

(7)       Not to accept your mistakes is to increase them.

(8)       Happiness is a thing which a person wishes only for himself; goodness is a thing which a person wishes for himself and for others. Happiness can be achieved by struggle; goodness, on the contrary, by being humble.

(9)       Anyone who is engage in really important thing is very simple because he does not have time to create unnecessary things.

(10)     Those who do nothing, do bad things. Those who do nothing, have many associates and supporters. The brain of a lazy and idle person is the favourite stopped place of the devil.

(11)     You should not be ashamed of any work, even the lowest and dirties, but you should be ashamed only of the dirtiest moral state, that is the idleness of your body, which is the necessary result of the consumption of the labour of others.

(12)     If you think someone is guilty of wronging you, forgive him. If you have never forgiven the guilty before, you will experience a new joy: the joy of forgiving.

(13)     The future does not really exist. It is created by us in the present.

(14)     All good things can be achieved only with effort.

(15)     We suffer from the past, and we spoil our future because we neglect the present.

(16)     The more urgently you want to speak, the more likely it is that you will say something foolish.

Source: “A Calendar of Wisdom : Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul written and selected from the world’s scared tests” by Leo Tolstoy, translated into English from the Russian by Peter Sekirin. Published by Simon and Schuster Inc, USA.