"I did this... to present for a wide reading audience an easily accessible, everyday circle of reading which will arouse their best thoughts and feelings." ~ Leo Tolstoy
Perhaps the spirit of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is breathing in my ear as I write Daily Celebrations, just as he was inspired to write his own daily celebration of life, A Calendar of Wisdom.
Tolstoy's "daily thoughts to nourish the soul... selected from the world's sacred texts" was his last major work, fulfilling a 15-year dream to collect "the wisdom of the centuries in one book."
"I know that it gives one great inner force, calmness, and happiness to communicate with such great thinkers as Socrates, Epictetus, Arnold, Parker... They tell us about what is most important for humanity, about the meaning of life, and about virtue."
Tolstoy wrote the day-by-day guide following meditation and from his diary entries. Similarly, Daily Celebrations rises from library reveries, cut newspaper and magazine articles, suggestions from others, and journal notations. Always, my words are written with the intent to celebrate life's passionate colors.
In a time of great spiritual need, Tolstoy sought to spread wisdom to as many as possible and "to entertain millions of readers." He considered this book his most important contribution to humanity.
He wrote in 1908, "I hope that the readers of this book may experience the same benevolent and elevating feeling which I... experienced when... working on its creation, and which I experience again and again, when I re-read it every day."
More Leo TOLSTOY Quotations
