Wise Thoughts for Every Day: On God, Love, the Human Spirit, and Living a Good Life

by Leo Tolstoy, Peter Sekirin (Translator)

Overview

During the last years of his life, Leo Tolstoy kept one book invariably on his desk, read and reread it to his family, and recommended it to all his friends: a compendium of wise thoughts gathered over the course of a decade from his wide-ranging readings in philosophy and religion, and from his own spiritual meditations. It was banned under the Communists, and only one volume, A Calendar of Wisdom, drawn largely from the writings of other famous thinkers, has been published before in English.

Wise Thoughts For Every Day is the volume comprising Tolstoy’s own most essential ideas about spirituality and what it is to live a good life. Designed by Tolstoy to be a cycle of daily readings, this book offers thoughts and aphorisms for every day according to a succession of themes repeated each month—such as God, the soul, desire, our passions, humility, inequality, evil, truth, happiness, prayer, and the blessings of love. At once challenging, comforting, and inspiring, this is a spiritual treasure trove and a book of great human warmth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628721355
Publisher:	Arcade
Publication date:	07/01/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	810 KB

About the Author

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), a giant of world literature, is the author of many classics, including War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Peter Sekirin was born in Russia and holds a Ph.D. in Russian Literature from the University of Toronto. He has been working at the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Toronto since 1999. His works include The Dostoevsky Archive, a biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky; the English-language translations of Tolstory's The Calendar of Wisdom; and On the Sea and Other Stories: Early Short Stories of Anton Chekhov. He works as a research associate at the University of Toronto and lives in North York, Ontario.

Date of Birth:

September 9, 1828

Date of Death:

November 20, 1910

Place of Birth:

Tula Province, Russia

Place of Death:

Astapovo, Russia

Education:

Privately educated by French and German tutors; attended the University of Kazan, 1844-47

Editorial Reviews

"Truth is brief. Lies speak with many words." "Hesitations do not destroy but strengthen faith." Wise Thoughts for Every Day collects 365 daily entries on the verities of life and faith by Russian novelist and spiritual thinker Leo Tolstoy. Each of the page length entries carries a thematic heading: "Faith," "Prayer," "Universal Love," "Desire and Passion," "God." Pithy wisdom.