20Augustавгуста · 20-е августа
Все люди, занятые истинно важным делом, всегда просты, потому что не имеют времени придумывать лишнее.
All people engaged in truly important work are always simple, because they have no time to invent anything superfluous.
1. Всякая потребность утихает, а всякий порок увеличивается от удовлетворения.
1. Every need subsides, and every vice grows, when it is satisfied.
From Fragments d'un journal intime · close to the original .
Original · FrenchTout besoin s'apaise et tout vice grandit par la satisfaction.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1885Every real need is stilled, and every vice is stimulated by satisfaction.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragments d'un journal intime, Journal, 13 décembre 1859 (7th ed., Geneva 1897, t. I, p. 145); Ward's translation, December 13, 1859.
A one-line maxim in the entry for 13 December 1859, after a portrait of Ernest Naville, translated word for word: 'grandit' (grows) is «увеличивается». Ward adds 'real' to 'need'. Mrs. M. L. Tolstaya's Russian selection, «Из дневника Амиеля», was not found online.
2. Всякое новое желание есть начало новой нужды, зачаток новой скорби.
2. Every new desire is the beginning of a new want, the seed of a new sorrow.
Source not found yet .
Tolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньВсякое новое желание есть начало новой нужды, зачаток новой скорби.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
Not found yet.
Not found. The Circle repeats Tolstoy's Thoughts of Wise Men (1903), November 23, word for word. The commentary of Jubilee vol. 40 says that Tolstoy took the sayings of writers he quoted only once or twice from calendars, anthologies, and quotations; it names the Prosveshchenie calendar for 1902 for some of them, not for this one. No French original ('tout nouveau désir … un nouveau besoin … le germe d'un nouveau chagrin', or the like) was found in Voltaire.
Searched: Jubilee vols. 40 and 42 (commentary and name index); the saved Voltaire texts (L'A B C, Dictionnaire philosophique articles, Woolf's English Philosophical Dictionary); all saved sources for 'nouveau désir' and 'every new desire'; web searches in French and English.
3. Раб своих страстей — самый низкий из рабов.
3. The slave of his passions is the lowest of slaves.
Source not found yet .
Tolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньРаб своих страстей — самый низкий из рабов.
Мысль 1 на 4 марта и мысль 2 на 23 ноября, подписанная в рукописи «Ал-Харизи», а не «Талмуд», как напечатано в издании «Посредник».
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
Not found yet.
«Раб своих страстей — самый низкий из рабов» (the slave of his passions is the lowest of slaves). The same sentence is thought 2 of 23 November in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903), where the Jubilee editors restored the manuscript's signature, «Ал-Харизи», for the Posrednik edition's «Талмуд»; the Circle keeps «Талмуд». Al-Harizi is Judah al-Harizi (c. 1165-1225), the Hebrew poet and translator, whom the Jubilee name index confuses with the Arabic al-Hariri. The saying was not found in his works or in the Talmud. Tolstoy's Talmud anthologies (Gurvich, 1901, which draws on all Hebrew literature; «Мировоззрение талмудистов», 1874-76) are not online, and either may have carried it under al-Harizi's name. The attribution to the Talmud is probably wrong, but the source was not seen.
Searched: Thoughts of Wise Men (1903) and its commentary (Jubilee vol. 40); the Jubilee vols. 41-42; Mivhar ha-Peninim in Hebrew and Ascher's English (1859, Sefaria), which has 'the slave of passions is led astray and perishes' (no. 185) but not this saying; Sefaria's search (no results returned); web searches in English for 'slave of his passions' with 'lowest' or 'basest of slaves'.
4. Чем больше ты окружаешь себя нуждами, тем большему подвергаешься рабству: потому что, чем в большем ты будешь нуждаться, тем более сократишь свою свободу. Совершенная свобода состоит в том, чтобы вовсе ни в чем не нуждаться, а следующая за нею — нуждаться в немногом.
4. The more you surround yourself with wants, the greater the slavery you subject yourself to: for the more you need, the more you will curtail your freedom. Perfect freedom consists in needing nothing at all, and the next after it in needing little.
From Homilies on the Gospel of John · close to the original .
What Tolstoy read · Беседы на Евангелие от Иоанна, Russian translation in «Творения святого отца нашего Иоан…Чем больше ты окружишь себя нуждами, тем большему подвергнешься рабству, потому что, чем в большем будешь нуждаться, тем более сократишь свою свободу.
Совершенная свобода состоит в том, чтобы вовсе ни в чем не нуждаться, а следующая за нею – нуждаться в немногом, и эту-то свободу имеют преимущественно ангелы и их подражатели.
Source text: azbyka.ruIn English · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 14 (ed. Philip Schaff), 1889The more thou puttest about thee, the more slavish dost thou become; for by whatever proportion thou requirest more, in that proportion thou hast trenched upon thy freedom.
… freedom is, to want nothing at all; the next is, to want little; and this the Angels and their imitators especially possess.
Source text: ccel.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily LXXX (on John 17:1), § 3.
The Russian of the St Petersburg Theological Academy, copied closely, from the close of Homily 80 on John, against wanting many things. Tolstoy puts the verbs of the first clause in the present, «окружаешь» (surround) and «подвергаешься» (are subjected) for «окружишь» and «подвергнешься» (will surround, will be subjected), adds «ты» (you) to «будешь нуждаться», sets a colon before «потому что», and ends at «нуждаться в немногом» (to need little), leaving out «и эту-то свободу имеют преимущественно ангелы и их подражатели» (and this freedom the angels and their imitators especially have). The Jubilee list of sources names «Наставления св. Иоанна Златоуста» (Посредник, 1888), not seen. The English is the Oxford translation in Schaff's series. The Greek (PG 59) was not saved.
5. Наслаждение, роскошь — вот что вы называете счастием, а я думаю, что ничего не желать — это блаженство богов, и потому нуждаться лишь в небольшом есть приближение к этому высшему счастью.
5. Pleasure and luxury — that is what you call happiness; but I think that to desire nothing is the bliss of the gods, and therefore to need only a little is to draw near to this highest happiness.
From Xenophon, Memorabilia · close to the original .
What Tolstoy read · Moralistes anciens, ed. L. Aimé-MartinLes délices , la magnificence, voilà ce que vous appelez le bonheur; et moi je crois que n'avoir besoin de rien, c'est la félicité des dieux, et qu'avoir besoin de peu de chose, c'est approcher de ce bonheur suprême.
Source text: archive.orgOriginal · Ancient Greek… ἔοικας, ὦ Ἀντιφῶν, τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν οἰομένῳ τρυφὴν καὶ πολυτέλειαν εἶναι· ἐγὼ δὲ νομίζω τὸ μὲν μηδενὸς δεῖσθαι θεῖον εἶναι, τὸ δʼ ὡς ἐλαχίστων ἐγγυτάτω τοῦ θείου, καὶ τὸ μὲν θεῖον κράτιστον, τὸ δʼ ἐγγυτάτω τοῦ θείου ἐγγυτάτω τοῦ κρατίστου.
Source text: raw.githubusercontent.comIn English · H. G. Dakyns, 1897You, Antiphon, would seem to suggest that happiness consists of luxury and extravagance; I hold a different creed. To have no wants at all is, to my mind, an attribute of Godhead; …
… to have as few wants as possible the nearest approach to Godhead; …
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · Путь жизниСладкую еду, богатые одежды, всякую роскошь — вы называете счастьем. А я думаю, что ничего не желать — это самое большое блаженство, и для того, чтобы приблизиться к этому высшему счастью, надо приучить себя нуждаться в немногом.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Xenophon, Memorabilia, I.6.10.
Tolstoy translates the French of Moralistes anciens, Socrates to the sophist Antiphon: "Les délices, la magnificence, voilà ce que vous appelez le bonheur; et moi je crois que n'avoir besoin de rien, c'est la félicité des dieux, et qu'avoir besoin de peu de chose, c'est approcher de ce bonheur suprême." «Наслаждение, роскошь» is "les délices, la magnificence", «блаженство богов» "la félicité des dieux", «нуждаться лишь в небольшом» "avoir besoin de peu de chose", and «этому высшему счастью» "ce bonheur suprême". Two changes: «ничего не желать» (to desire nothing) for "n'avoir besoin de rien" (to need nothing; Xenophon's μηδενὸς δεῖσθαι), and «и потому» (and therefore) joining the clauses. The French had already made Xenophon's "nearest to the divine" (ἐγγυτάτω τοῦ θείου) an approach to "this supreme happiness"; Xenophon's last clause, that the divine is mightiest and what is nearest it nearest the mightiest, is left out, as the French gives it in a sentence of its own. In Путь жизни Tolstoy rewrote the thought («Сладкую еду, богатые одежды, всякую роскошь — вы называете счастьем...»). The signature names Socrates for words Xenophon reports of him.
6. Мы должны жить не для нашего тела, но как бы поневоле считаясь с ним. Эпикур говорит: «Если вы станете жить сообразно природе, то никогда не будете бедны; если же будете жить сообразно общепринятым условным обычаям, то никогда не будете богаты. Природа требует немногого; господствующие же обычаи требуют излишеств».
6. We must live not for our body, but taking account of it, as it were, only because we must. Epicurus says: “If you live in accordance with nature, you will never be poor; but if you live in accordance with generally accepted conventional customs, you will never be rich. Nature demands little; the prevailing customs demand excess.”
From Epistulae morales ad Lucilium · joined by Tolstoy from several places .
Original · LatinSic gerere nos debemus, non tamquam propter corpus vivere debeamus, sed tamquam non possimus sine corpore; …
Istuc quoque ab Epicuro dictum est: 'si ad naturam vives, numquam eris pauper; si ad opiniones, numquam eris dives'.
Exiguum natura desiderat, opinio immensum.
Source text: thelatinlibrary.comIn English · Richard M. Gummere (Loeb), 1917We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, …
If you live according to nature, you will never be poor ; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.
… the demands of opinion are boundless.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 14.2; 16.7–8.
Joined from two letters. Letter 14.2: "We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it" (non tamquam propter corpus vivere debeamus, sed tamquam non possimus sine corpore); Tolstoy: «Мы должны жить не для нашего тела, но как бы поневоле считаясь с ним» (we must live not for our body but as though perforce taking account of it). Letter 16.7–8: "This also is a saying of Epicurus: 'If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.' Nature's wants are slight; the demands of opinion are boundless." Tolstoy renders "opinio" (opinion) twice as custom, «сообразно общепринятым условным обычаям» (according to generally accepted conventional customs) and «господствующие же обычаи требуют излишеств» (while the prevailing customs demand excesses), and sets Seneca's own comment after the quotation inside Epicurus's words. Ramage's Latin Authors has the Epicurus sentence alone (Ep. 16, "How to Live"); the source of the join was not found. The English excerpts are from the scan of Gummere's Loeb volume, whose OCR has slips ("livc") the excerpts avoid.
7. Ограничьтесь растениями, если хотите питаться сытно и здорово.
7. Limit yourselves to plants if you want your food to be both filling and wholesome.
From Homilies on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“Let us seek nothing more than this” becomes a precept, “Limit yourselves to plants,” and living “luxuriously,” in Chrysostom’s paradox that the eater of herbs is the one who truly feasts, becomes food that is “filling”; the flesh he allows the weaker “in moderation” is already left out in Williams’s Ethics of Diet, whose reading Tolstoy follows. †
† An intermediate translation may have made this change.
What Tolstoy read · Howard Williams, The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice…For consider who should we say more truly feasted — he whose diet is herbs, and who is in sound health and suffered no uneasiness, or he who has the table of a Sybarite and is full of a thousand disorders ?
Therefore let us seek nothing more than these, if we would at once live luxuriously and healthfully.
But let him who is weaker, and needs to be [more richly] dieted with other vegetables and fruits, not be debarred from them. . . . We do not advise this for the harm and injury of men, but to lop off what is superfluous …
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 12 (ed. Philip Schaff), 1889Which should we say more truly feasted, he whose diet was herbs, and who was in sound health and suffered no uneasiness: or he who had the table of a Sybarite, and was full of ten thousand disorders?
Therefore let us seek nothing more than this, if we would at once live luxuriously and healthfully: and let us set these boundaries to sufficiency.
And let him that can be satisfied with pulse and can keep in good health, seek for nothing more; but let him who is weaker and requires to be dieted with garden herbs, not be hindered of this.
But if any be even weaker than this and require the support of flesh in moderation, we will not debar him from this either.
Source text: ccel.orgAnother translation · Толкование на 2-е послание к Коринфянам, Russian translation in «Творения святого отца н…Смотри же, кого справедливее назвать роскошествующим: того ли, кто, питаясь овощами, здоров и не страдает никакой болезнью, или того, кто имеет самый богатый и роскошный стол, но страдает бесчисленными болезнями?
Итак, не будем желать ничего излишнего, если хотим и роскошествовать и наслаждаться здоровьем, и этим ограничим довольство.
Если кто еще слабее, и для него потребуется умеренное употребление мяса, мы не запрещаем ему и этого.
Source text: azbyka.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Homilies on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Homily XIX (on 2 Corinthians 9:1), § 3.
Chrysostom's "Therefore let us seek nothing more than this [the diet of herbs], if we would at once live luxuriously and healthfully", from a homily on almsgiving that asks only for the cutting off of superfluities. Tolstoy makes it a precept, «Ограничьтесь растениями» (limit yourselves to plants), and makes "live luxuriously" (in Chrysostom's paradox, the herb-eater is the one who truly feasts) «питаться сытно» (eat heartily). Chrysostom goes straight on to allow garden herbs to the weaker and "flesh in moderation" to the weaker still; Tolstoy keeps the first clause alone. Tolstoy's reading follows the English line of Howard Williams's The Ethics of Diet (1883), which quotes the passage with "nothing more than these" and gives the allowance of garden herbs as "other vegetables and fruits", leaving out the allowance of flesh at its ". . .". The Academy's Russian, "let us desire nothing superfluous" («не будем желать ничего излишнего»), has nothing of plants and was not Tolstoy's source. Tolstoy knew Williams's book from 1891, and «Первая ступень» was the preface of its Russian translation, «Этика пищи» (Posrednik, 1893); that translation and T. Tolstaya's «250 мыслей философов, поэтов и ученых о вегетарианстве и воздержании» (Posrednik, 1903) are both in the Jubilee list of the Circle's sources (vol. 42), and either may have given Tolstoy his Russian; neither was found online. The Greek (PG 61) was not saved.
Умеренность имеет то великое достоинство, что только при умеренной жизни все люди могли бы жить без нужды и зависти.
Moderation has this great merit, that only with moderate living could all people live without want and envy.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the comma before «что»; it is set here as one span.
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