Leo Tolstoy

Thoughts of Leo Tolstoy

Our leaders want to fight evil with evil ─ with punishments, prisons, executions, and so on. However, doing so only makes the punishers and the punished more and more cruel.

Imagine thinking that a group of people is bad and that you can improve them by force. They may in turn think the same about you. Why improve them and not yourself?

It may appear that violence brings justice, but it only seems that way. In reality, the only thing that leads to justice is living a free life.

Why is most religion perverted, and why is morality in decline? There is only one reason: it is because people believe in living a life based on violence.

The prejudice of violence passes from one generation to the next and continues its harm. People brought up with violence grow used to the idea that their adult lives should be filled with it.

Each act of violence not only fails to calm us down but brings increasingly more violence into our lives. Therefore, it is clear that we cannot change or improve our lives through violence. We lash out for revenge, not self-improvement.

Not only Christ but all the wise man in the world ─ Buddhist, Brahman, Taoist, and the ancient Greeks ─ taught that intelligent people should respond with good to evil.

It is clear that violence and murder make people indignant, and yet they repay violence and murder with more violence and murder. Obviously, there is an explanation for this response, but there is no way we can justify it.

The teaching of peace is a natural consequence of the teaching of love.

Many of the bad things people do, they do for themselves. Much worse things people do for their families. However, the most terrible deeds are done for their government and country ─ deception, war, spying, and killing others.

Murder is always murder, no matter why you have to kill. People who promote murder are evil even if they are judges or generals. They also are criminals. We should pity them and reeducate them.

For a wise man, his being is his homeland. He feels good wherever he goes, because his happiness is found within himself, and his spirit.

We can remove the filth from our body with soap. The same thing can be done in our communities: they too should be cleansed.

(Leo Tolstoy, Wise Thoughts for Every Day, 14, 15, 17 July)

I now understand the words of Jesus going: Ye have heard that it hath been said, and ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for tooth’; but I say unto you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also.” Jesus’ meaning is: You have thought that you were acting in a reasonable manner in defending yourself by violence against evil, in tearing out an eye for an eye, by fighting against evil with criminal tribunals, guardians of the peace, armies; but I say unto you, “Renounce violence and have nothing to do with violence; do harm to no one, not even to your enemy.”

(Leo Tolstoy, in Flowers Along the Path, by Esther Carls Dodgen, p. 349)

War and Christianity are not compatible.

War is one of the worst, most terrible things in this world.

War in this world can be stopped not by the ruling establishment, but by those who suffer from the war. They will do the most natural thing: stop obeying orders.

The armed world and the wars it wages will be destroyed one day, but not by the kings or the rulers of this world. War is profitable for them. War will stop the moment the people who suffer from war fully understand that it is evil.

(Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, 9 March)

13 March 2016

Anger

It is not men's acts which disturb us -- but our reaction to them. Take these away, and anger goes. No wrong act of another can bring shame on you.
(Marcus Aurelius, in One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 15 November)

Perhaps the most profound miracle of all is living through something we thought would kill us.
(Beth Moore, Praying God's Word Day By Day, 16 November)

It isn't always easy to speak correction to those we know are clearly in the wrong. But the Lord uses strong leaders to correct His people, courageous leaders who can speak the truth in love.
(John C. Maxwell, Leadership, 17 September)
13 March 2014

Good & Bad Leaders

• Attitudes - When good leaders rule, people rejoice; when the wicked reign, people groan.
• Stability - When moral leaders rule, they establish justice; compromising leaders tear things down.
• Compassion - Good leaders express concern for the poor; bad leaders reflect no compassion for anyone.
• Honesty - When leaders pay attention to lies, their staff begins to esteem the same deceptions.
• Vision - Solid vision keeps everyone on track; chaos reigns whenever the vision lapses.

(John C. Maxwell - Leadership, 2 November)
20 December 2013

Unscrupulous Leaders

The entire culture will benefit by having strong, inner-directed people as leaders and everyday citizens. A citizenry that thinks for itself, a country in which people know and trust themselves as individuals would be virtually immune to manipulation by unscrupulous leaders.
(Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 242)

... we need to be held accountable. We need to be "audited" by others to know how we are doing and what areas need more focus.
(Cloud & Townsend, God Will Make A Way, p. 31)
6 December 2013

It's Too Much

People are losing faith in the ability of our leaders to govern. There is:

• Too much secrecy
• Too little privacy
• Too many lies
• Too many unnecessary wars
• Too many corporate tax breaks
• Too many tax increases
• Too much election corruption
• Too much election district gerrymandering
• Too little participation of the American public in the process of governing 
• Too few jobs
• Too low minimum wage
• Too easy access to guns
• Too many guns
• Too little access to health care insurance
• Too much cancer, heart disease, Aids, and obesity
• Too many unnecessary surgeries
• Too many dying cities
• Too many illegal immigrants
• Too much pork barrel spending
• Too many bridge to nowhere projects
• Too little infrastructure maintenance
• Too many water main breaks
• Too many power outages
• Too many bridges in poor repair
• Too many domestic terrorist killings
• Too much talking and texting while driving
• Too much drug use
• Too many red light and speed cameras
• Too much delay in filling top level Presidential appointments
• Too much delay in filling all government jobs
• Too much political talk with little action
• Too many filibusters 
• Too many under-educated children and adults
• Too little Christian religion
• Too many government projects that fail
• Too little compromise in the houses of Congress
• Too many members of Congress who have been in office too long
• Too few viable political parties 
• Too little accountability

When you get right down to it, it's all just Too Much!

Mr. Dickie
4 November 2013

Banking On Good Will

All leaders have a certain amount of good will in their bank account when they start work at a new job. From then on, they either build up their account or pay it out. Bad decisions and poor people skills cost them until they run out of credit and credibility. It doesn't matter whether the blunders are big or small, when you're account is empty, you are out as a leader. (after John C. Maxwell, Leadership, 5 June) 5 June 2013

Credibility

The greatest missing ingredient in ... leaders today is credibility.

(John C. Maxwell, Leadership, 21 March)

19 April 2013

Leaders

The strength of any organization is a direct result of the strength of its leaders.

• Weak leaders = weak organizations.
• Strong leaders = strong organizations.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

(John C. Maxwell, Leadership, 2 January)

18 April 2013

Patriotic

In fact, the decision to be patriotic or not is a choice, and no one ought to be condemned for disagreeing vehemently with the conduct of his countries leaders. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 148)
10 April 2013

Lazy Leaders

When leaders become lazy and lose their diligence in doing good for God, they become spiritual sluggards and worthless to the kingdom.

Wise leaders know their time is limited. They know they have no way to retrieve misused or wasted time.
(John C. Maxwell, Leadership, 17 March)
29 March 2013

History Has Shown

World history has shown again and again that it is dangerous for a society to have individuals with too much power. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 93)

People don't automatically buy into a good cause. ... People buy into the leaders first then the leader's vision. (John C. Maxwell, Leadership, 30 January)

To authoritarians, any attempt to change the country is an attempt to destroy it, and a citizen's duty is to obey the authority figures, without ever asking whether they are lying, stealing, trampling on people's rights or otherwise abusing their positions. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 95)

... authoritarians have a very strong resistance to change, and are threatened by any disruption of things as they are accustomed to experiencing them. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 67)

... authoritarians for all their pretensions to mastery, tend inwardly to be chronically depressed and unhappy people, suffering from an almost total lack of real human fulfillment, secretly aware that they are bumbling through life chasing some unknown inhuman thing, being tolerated but never really respected by others, and suffering from blind, inert acceptance of their fates. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 102)

The signs of unholy relationships are quite clear; people become: defensive, fearful, hostile, standoffish, and don't wish to be in your company. (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Power of Intention, p. 91)

Wars can be stopped only if people are ready to be persecuted for not participating in them. This is the only way. (Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar Of Wisdom, 29 December)

If my soldiers started thinking, not a single soldier would remain in my army. (Frederick II in A Calendar Of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 29 December)

The bigger the lie, the more eagerly do those who want the lie to be true corrupt their consciousness. ... there was the corrupted consciousness that kept America believing that we were winning the Vietnam War until 45,000 Americans were killed, 300,000 American men and women were wounded, over 150 billion dollars were spent, and a beautiful Asian country was left in smoking ruin. Barbara Tuckman writes in her book, "The March of Folly." "At no time were policy-makers unaware of the hazards, obstacles, and negative developments. American intelligence was adequate, informed observation flowed steadily from the field to the capital." We knew, but we choose not to know. (Lewis B. Smedes, A Pretty Good Person, p. 73)

• To put the world in order we must first put the nation in order.
• To put the nation in order we must first put the family in order.
• To put the family in order we must first cultivate our personal life.
• And to cultivate our personal life, we must set our hearts right.
• (Confucious, c.550-470 b.c., Chinese Philospher in Pocket Positives)

Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants. (William Penn, in The  Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, p. 59)

10 March 2013

Choosing Leaders

Photo: Mr. Dickie - Emmitsburg, MD

... in recent times we have seen persons elevated to high positions who were later discovered to have falsified their academic or professional records.  Clearly the criteria that we human beings use to choose our leaders are imperfect and subject to abuse.  (The Upper Room Disciplines - 2003, 27 May)  25 January 2012

The Nature of Things

It is the nature of things that all earthly leaders must come and go. They have their part in the drama of life and then the curtain comes down.  (William Barclay, The Letter To The Hebrews, p. 195) 26 December 2011

Beware

Beware of ... [leaders] who look only at the surface and never get to the heart of the problem. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary, p. 500) 2 August 2011

What Is Right And What Is Wrong

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. to decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. (Mark Twain in The Book of Choices by Mike Magee, MD, p. 89)

When a nations leaders have their priorities confused, the nation will suffer greatly. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary, p. 206)
1/Feb/2011 9:04

Winter Weather

Evil leaders could never succeed were it not for weak people who obey their orders. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary, p. 209)

******

More winter weather arrived this morning. Schools in our country are closed for the day. I was able to make my taxi run to the subway without incident, followed by a stop at the postoffice to mail a letter. There's another band of winter weather behind this one. Let's hope we don't receive a one-two punch that knocks us out for a few days.

I'm continuing to work on my Conger genealogy file edits. Yesterday I added several obituaries and the information I could glean from them. I also continued the "note" field edit project. I'm now looking at Conger records for people whose first names begin with the letter "J". I'm also working on adding records for people in the ancestor tree of a very famous person in the Conger family.

I'm now Facebook friends with Jim Stevens. Jim was the boss of two of my bosses while we worked at The Library of Congress. I worked for him first at The Navy Yard and later on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Dickie
26/Jan/2011 8:07