TRUE GOOD

All men seek happiness. This is without exception.

Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this

end.

The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding

it, is the same desire in both, attended with different

views. The will never takes the least step but to this object.

This is the motive of every action of every man, even

of those who hang themselves.

And yet after such a great number of years, no one without

faith has reached the point to which all continually look.

All complain, princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners,old and young, strong and weak, learned and ignorant,healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions.

A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should

certainly convince us of our inability to reach the good by

our own efforts.

But example teaches us little. No resemblance

is ever so perfect that there is not some slight difference;

and hence we expect that our hope will not be deceived

on this occasion as before.

 And thus, while the present never satisfies us, experience dupes us, and from misfortune to misfortune leads us to death, their eternal crown.

What is it then that this desire and this inability proclaim

to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of

which there now remain to him only the mark and empty

trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings,

seeking from things absent to help he does not obtain in

things present? But these are all inadequate, because the

infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.

He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken

Him, it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature

which has not been serviceable in taking His place; the

stars, the heavens, earth, the elements, plants, cabbages,

leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever, pestilence, war,famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since man has lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even his own destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason,and to the whole course of nature.

Blaise  Pascal

A THINKING REED

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he

is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself

to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him.

But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be

more noble than that which killed him, because he knows

that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over

him ; the universe knows nothing of this.

All our dignity consists then in thought. By it we must

elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavour then to think well ; this is the principle of morality.

A thinking reed.—It is not from space that I must seek my

dignity, but from the government of my thought. I shall

have no more if I possess worlds. By space the universe

encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought

I comprehend the world.

 

Blaise Pascal

EXCHANGING DESIRES

Generally something mystical is seen in our view of

life and death. But there is nothing of the kind.

I like my garden, I like to read a book, I like to pet

my children. Dying, I am deprived of all this, and so I

do not want to die, and I am afraid of death.

It may happen that my whole life is composed of such

temporal, worldly desires and their gratification. If so, I

cannot help but fear that my desires will come to an end.

But if these desires and their gratification have been

changed in me, giving way to other desires,—to fulfil

God's will, to surrender myself to Him in the form in

which I am now and in all the possible forms in which I

may be, then, the more my desires have changed, the less

death is, not only terrible to me, but the less even does it

exist for me.

But if my desires will be completely changed, there is

nothing but life, and there is no death.

To exchange the worldly, the temporal, for the eternal,

this is the path of life, and we must walk on it.

Each of us knows how this is in his soul.

 

LEO TOLSTOY

OF MICE AND MEN

Last night the plashing of the water in the basin awoke

me. I called my wife, thinking that she was washing

herself. She was asleep : it was a mouse that had fallen

into the basin and was struggling to get out.

We have had conflicts before on account of mice, and

these conflicts have caused me to reflect. It would happen

that a mouse would get into a mouse-trap, which somebody

else had set. I take it, to carry it out, and to let the mouse out in the yard.

My wife says, " You had better not touch it : I will

take it out myself and will have it killed."

I leave it to her, knowing that the mouse will be

killed.

But to-day, as I was lying and wanting to go to sleep,

I heard this tiny creature struggle as it was drowning,

and I understood that it was not right, and that I had

done wrong, when I had permitted the mice to be killed,

when I had had the chance to save them.

I saw that I did not do it in order not to violate love, but in order to avoid a small unpleasantness.

Tliis is bad in our situation : we permit not mice,

but men to perish,

doing other people a pleasure,

only to avoid a small unpleasantness.

It is this that we should remember and not forget fo

a minute.

LEO TOLSTOY

TRUE GOOD

There is one teacher, Christ, and he teaches one thing,

the fulfilment of the Father's will, not for the pleasure of

men, but in order that we may be with Him, consequently

may be happy and free.


The chief obstacle in this is in the malice and praise or

the condemnation of men. This obstacle, if you are the

least bit careless, takes the place of the seeking of the true

good in the fulfilment of God's will.
 
LEO TOLSTOY

WHAT IS EVIL FOR?

None of us is called to destroy all the sufferings of
men, but only to serve men.


People always ask, " What is evil for ?"


What is evil ?


What we call evil is a challenge addressed to us, a


demand made upon our active love.

The man who will reply to these demands of the activity

of love will see precisely as much evil as he needs in order to

provoke his  activity.


Thus I think and feel now, but only lately I saw very


much evil, and I was vexed and in despair, and so I


prescribe the recipe which has helped me.


The moment you see an evil, even the smallest,
try to mend it, to diminish it,
and you will never see much evil at once
and will not arrive at despair,
and the hands will not drop,
and you will do much good.
 
LEO TOLSTOY

WORK OF LOVE

Christ has conquered the world and has saved it,because he has suffered with love and joy, that is, has conquered suffering and has taught us to do the same.
I know this, but am still unable to learn it, althoughI see for sure that I am moving in this direction.
May God help all men to do the common work, the work of love, by word, deed, abstinence, effort : here, not to speak a bad word, not to do what would be worse;there, to overcome timidity and false shame, and to do what is necessary, what is good, —what is loving.
All tiny, imperceptible acts and words,— but from these mustard-seeds grows the tree of love which with its branches shades the whole world.
This work may God aid us to do with our friends, with our enemies, with strangers, in moments when our mood is the highest, and in moments when it is the lowest.
And it will be well for us, and it will be well for everybody.
LEO TOLSTOY