9Julyиюля · 9-е июля
Ошибочно думают, что многознание есть достоинство. Важно не количество, а качество знания.
It is a mistake to think that knowing a great deal is a merit. What matters is not the quantity of knowledge but its quality.
1. Сократ хотя и считал глупость несовместимой с мудростью, не называл невежество глупостью. Но не знать самого себя и воображать себе, что знаешь то, чего не знаешь, вот что он называл безумием.
1. Although Socrates held foolishness to be incompatible with wisdom, he did not call ignorance foolishness. But not to know oneself, and to imagine that one knows what one does not know — that is what he called madness.
From Xenophon, Memorabilia · close to the original .
What Tolstoy read · Moralistes anciens, ed. L. Aimé-MartinIl regardait bien la folie comme contraire à la sagesse, cependant il ne traitait pas l'ignorance de folie. Mais ne se pas connaître soi-même , et croire que l'on sait ce qu'on ignore, c'est, disait-il, toucher de près à la démence.
Source text: archive.orgOriginal · Ancient Greek… μανίαν γε μὴν ἐναντίον μὲν ἔφη εἶναι σοφίᾳ, οὐ μέντοι γε τὴν ἀνεπιστημοσύνην μανίαν ἐνόμιζε· τὸ δὲ ἀγνοεῖν ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἃ μὴ οἶδε δοξάζειν τε καὶ οἴεσθαι γιγνώσκειν ἐγγυτάτω μανίας ἐλογίζετο εἶναι.
Source text: raw.githubusercontent.comIn English · H. G. Dakyns, 1897On the other hand, madness (he maintained) was the opposite to wisdom; not that he regarded simple ignorance as madness, (7) but he put it thus: for a man to be ignorant of himself, to imagine and suppose that he knows what he knows not, was (he argued), if not madness itself, yet something very like it.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Xenophon, Memorabilia, III.9.6.
Tolstoy translates the French of Moralistes anciens: "Il regardait bien la folie comme contraire à la sagesse, cependant il ne traitait pas l'ignorance de folie. Mais ne se pas connaître soi-même, et croire que l'on sait ce qu'on ignore, c'est, disait-il, toucher de près à la démence." «глупость» (folly) is the French "folie", «невежество» "l'ignorance", and «безумием» (madness) "la démence"; Tolstoy names Socrates, where the French has "il", and makes "toucher de près à la démence" (to come close to madness) «вот что он называл безумием» (this is what he called madness). Xenophon has μανία (madness) where the French and Tolstoy have folly, and says the self-ignorance is "nearest to madness" (ἐγγυτάτω μανίας), as the French does. The signature names the author, Xenophon, for words he reports of Socrates.
2. Мы живем в век философии, наук и разума. Кажется, что все науки соединились, чтобы осветить путь в этом лабиринте человеческой жизни. Огромные библиотеки открыты для всех, везде гимназии, школы, университеты дают нам с детства возможность воспользоваться мудростью людей, проявившейся в продолжение тысячелетий. Всё, казалось бы, содействует образованию нашего ума и утверждению разума. Что же, стали ли мы лучше или мудрее от всего этого? Лучше ли мы знаем путь и назначение нашего призвания? Лучше ли мы знаем, в чем наши обязанности и, главное, благо жизни? Что приобрели мы от всего этого тщетного знания, кроме вражды, ненависти, неизвестности и сомнений? Всякое религиозное учение и секта доказывает, что она одна нашла истину. Всякий писатель один знает, в чем наше благо. Один доказывает нам, что нет тела, другой — что нет души, третий — что между душой и телом нет связи, четвертый — что человек животное, пятый — что бог только зеркало.
2. We live in an age of philosophy, of the sciences, and of reason. It seems that all the sciences have joined together to light the way through this labyrinth of human life. Huge libraries are open to all; everywhere academies, schools, and universities give us from childhood the chance to make use of the wisdom that people have shown over thousands of years. Everything, it would seem, contributes to the education of our minds and the strengthening of reason. Well, then, have we become better or wiser from all this? Do we know better the way and the purpose of our calling? Do we know better what our duties are and, above all, what the good of life is? What have we gained from all this vain knowledge, except enmity, hatred, uncertainty, and doubts? Every religious teaching and sect proves that it alone has found the truth. Every writer is the only one who knows what our good is. One proves to us that there is no body, another that there is no soul, a third that there is no connection between soul and body, a fourth that man is an animal, a fifth that God is only a mirror.
From Lettres morales · shortened by Tolstoy .
Original · French… nous vivons dans le climat et dans le siècle de la philosophie et de la raison. Les lumières de toutes les sciences semblent se réunir à la fois pour éclairer nos yeux et nous guider dans cet obscur labyrinthe de la vie humaine.
… d'immenses bibliothèques sont ouvertes au public, des multitudes de collèges et d'universités nous offrent dès l'enfance l'expérience et la méditation de quatre mille ans.
Qu'avons-nous acquis à tout ce vain savoir, sinon des querelles, des haines, de l'incertitude et des doutes? Chaque secte est la seule qui ait trouvé la vérité; …
L'un nous prouve qu'il n'y a point de corps, un autre qu'il n'y a point d'âmes, un autre que l'âme n'a nul rapport au corps, …
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · Путь жизниМы живем в век философии, наук и разума. Кажется, что все науки соединились, чтобы осветить нам путь в этом лабиринте человеческой жизни.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Lettres morales (Lettres sur la vertu et le bonheur, 1757–1758), letter II, G. Streckeisen-Moultou, ed., Œuvres et correspondance inédites de J.-J. Rousseau (Paris, 1861), pp. 143–144.
From the second of Rousseau's letters to Sophie (Mme d'Houdetot) on virtue and happiness, unpublished in his lifetime and first printed by Streckeisen-Moultou in 1861; condensed. Left out: 'Les plus beaux génies de tous les âges réunissent leurs leçons pour nous instruire' and the sentence on the immortality, glory, and riches that reward teachers. 'Dans le climat et dans le siècle de la philosophie' becomes «в век философии»; 'la méditation de quatre mille ans' (the reflection of four thousand years) «в продолжение тысячелетий»; 'chaque livre contient exclusivement les préceptes de la sagesse; chaque auteur est le seul qui nous enseigne ce qui est bien' (each book alone holds wisdom's precepts; each author alone teaches us what is good) becomes «Всякий писатель один знает, в чем наше благо». Rousseau's list ends 'un autre que l'homme est une bête, un autre que Dieu est un miroir', the Russian's «четвертый — что человек животное, пятый — что бог только зеркало»; the scan reads 'bète' there, so the excerpt stops before it. The thought ends where Rousseau goes on ('Il n'y a point de maxime si absurde...'). Masson quotes the same lines in his edition of the Profession de foi (1914, saved), as from the second letter to Sophie. Tolstoy printed the thought again in The Path of Life, word for word. No English translation was found.
3. Какое огромное преимущество на стороне того человека, который ничего не знает о предмете и, что очень редко, — знает, что ничего не знает о нем, перед тем, кто действительно кое-что знает, но думает, что он знает всё! Какое огромное преимущество на стороне первого!
3. What an enormous advantage is on the side of the man who knows nothing about a subject and — what is very rare — knows that he knows nothing about it, over the one who really does know something but thinks he knows everything! What an enormous advantage is on the side of the first!
From Journal, 27 February 1851, as printed in Early Spring in Massachusetts, ed. H. G. O. Blake · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedThoreau’s two questions, “what great advantage has the latter over the former? which is the better to deal with?”, become an exclamation that answers them, “What an enormous advantage is on the side of the man who knows nothing,” and Tolstoy repeats it: “What an enormous advantage is on the side of the first!”
What Tolstoy read · Every Day with Thoreau, in The Coming DayOf two men, one of whom knows nothing about a subject, and, what is extremely rare, knowsthat he knows nothing, and the other really knows something about it but thinks that he knows all, what great advantage has the latter over the former?
Source text: archive.orgThoreau’s own wordsOf two men, one of whom knows nothing about a subject, and, what is extremely rare, knows that he knows nothing, and the other really knows something about it, but thinks that he knows all, what great advantage has the latter over the former ? which is the better to deal with ?
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Journal, 27 February 1851, as printed in Early Spring in Massachusetts, ed. H. G. O. Blake (Boston, 1881), Early Spring (1881), p. 14, the entry for 27 February 1851.
Thoreau's two questions become an exclamation. Thoreau asks 'what great advantage has the latter over the former? which is the better to deal with?', leaving the reader to answer that the man who knows he knows nothing is the better. Tolstoy gives the answer: 'What an enormous advantage is on the side of the man who knows nothing about a subject and (which is very rare) knows that he knows nothing about it, over the one who really knows something but thinks that he knows everything!' (Какое огромное преимущество на стороне того человека…), and repeats it, 'What an enormous advantage is on the side of the first!'; the second question is left out. The rest is close. The Coming Day's calendar prints the sentence under May 14 (What Tolstoy read), as it printed April's five Thoreau thoughts and May's 5-13.6. No printable.
4. Как много ненужного чтения могли бы мы избегнуть при самостоятельном мышлении!
Разве чтение и учение одно и то же? Кто-то не без основания утверждал, что книгопечатание если и способствовало более широкому распространению учености, то в ущерб ее качеству и содержанию. Слишком много читать вредно для мышления. Величайшие мыслители, встречавшиеся мне среди ученых, которых я изучал, были как раз наименее начитанными.
Если бы людей учили, как они должны мыслить, а не только тому, чтò они должны мыслить, — недоразумение было бы предотвращено.
4. How much needless reading we could avoid by thinking for ourselves!
Are reading and study one and the same? Someone has asserted, not without grounds, that printing, if it did help to spread learning more widely, did so at the expense of its quality and substance. Reading too much is harmful to thinking. The greatest thinkers I have come across among the scholars I have studied were precisely the least widely read.
If people were taught how they ought to think, and not only what they ought to think, misunderstanding would be prevented.
From Vermischte Schriften, vol. I · shortened by Tolstoy .
Original · GermanWie viel unz noͤthiges Leſen wird dadurch uns erſpart!
Iſt denn Leſen und Studiren einerley? Es hat jemand mit großem Grund der Wahrheit behauptet, daß die Buchdrucke⸗ rey Gelehrſamkeit zwar mehr ausgebreitet, aber im Gehalt vermindert haͤtte.
Die größten Denker, die mir vorgekommen ſind, waren gerade unter allen Gelehrten, die ich habe kennen gelernt, die, welche am wenigſten geleſen hatten.
Wenn man die Menſchen lehrt, wie ſie denken ſollen, und nicht ewig hin, was ſie denken ſollen, ſo wird auch dem Misverſtaͤndniß vorgebeugt.
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · Путь жизниКак много ненужного чтения могли бы мы избегнуть при самостоятельном мышлении!
Если бы людей учили, как они должны мыслить, а не только тому, что они должны мыслить, — недоразумение было бы предотвращено.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Vermischte Schriften, vol. I (1800), Bemerkungen vermischten Inhalts, 1: Philosophische Bemerkungen, Vermischte Schriften I (Göttingen, 1800), pp. 159–160.
One remark of Lichtenberg's, its opening left out and the rest kept closely in its order. Left out: “Man empfiehlt Selbstdenken, oft nur um die Irrthümer anderer beym Studiren von Wahrheit zu unterscheiden. Es ist ein Nutzen, aber ist das alles?” (people recommend thinking for oneself, often only to tell others' errors from truth in study; it is a use, but is that all?), so that Lichtenberg's “dadurch” (by this, thinking for oneself) becomes «при самостоятельном мышлении» (in thinking for oneself). Kept: how much needless reading it spares us; is reading the same as studying; someone has claimed that printing spread learning wider but lessened its content; much reading harms thinking; the greatest thinkers among the scholars he had known were those who had read least; if people were taught how to think, and not forever what to think, misunderstanding would be prevented. Tolstoy writes «не без основания» (not without ground) for “mit großem Grund der Wahrheit” (with great ground of truth), «в ущерб ее качеству и содержанию» (to the harm of its quality and content) for “im Gehalt vermindert” (lessened in content), «которых я изучал» (whom I studied) for “die ich habe kennen gelernt” (whom I have come to know), and «а не только» (and not only) for “und nicht ewig hin” (and not forever). He sets the three parts as paragraphs. The Jubilee commentary (vol. 42) records that on 20 February 1905 Tolstoy and F. A. Strakhov corrected the Circle's Lichtenberg thoughts and that Tolstoy dictated his own translation of some. His listed source, Lichtenberg's Ausgewählte Schriften (Leipzig, 1879), was not found online, so the first edition stands in, as in earlier months; its OCR reads “unz nöthiges” for “unnöthiges”. Tolstoy printed the thought also in «На каждый день» (19 May, no. 6) and «Путь жизни» (tolstoy block). No public-domain English was found.
5. Не бойся незнания, бойся ложного знания. От него всё зло мира.
5. Do not fear the lack of knowledge, fear false knowledge. All the evil of the world comes from it.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the comma; it is set here as one span.
6. Человек, который умеет скрывать свою глупость, лучше, чем человек, который хочет выказать свою мудрость.
6. Those who know how to hide their foolishness are better than those who want to show off their wisdom.
7. Чтобы достигнуть нравственного совершенства, нужно прежде всего заботиться о душевной чистоте. А душевная чистота достигается в том только случае, когда сердце ищет правды и воля стремится к святости. И всё это зависит от истинного знания.
7. To attain moral perfection, one must first of all care for purity of soul. And purity of soul is attained only when the heart seeks truth and the will strives toward holiness. And all this depends on true knowledge.
From The Great Learning · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedThe text of May 3 (5-3.4) again, its middle links renamed: “to rectify their hearts” becomes “purity of soul,” being “sincere in their thoughts” becomes “the heart seeks truth and the will strives toward holiness,” and knowledge “extended to the utmost” becomes “true knowledge.” †
† An intermediate translation may have made this change.
In English · James Legge, 1861Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge.
Source text: archive.orgAnother translation · G. Pauthier, Confucius et Mencius: Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique …… ceux qui désiraient se corriger eux-mêmes s'attachaient auparavant à donner de la droiture à leur âme; ceux qui désiraient donner de la droiture à leur âme s'attachaient auparavant à rendre leurs intentions pures et sincères; …
Source text: gutenberg.orgTolstoy’s own version · Мысли мудрых людей на каждый деньЧтобы достигнуть нравственного совершенства, нужно прежде всего заботиться о душевной чистоте. А душевная чистота достигается в том только случае, когда сердце ищет правды и воля стремится к святости. Но всё это зависит от истинного знания.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Great Learning (Daxue), Classic text, § 4 (Legge's ch. 1, par. 4).
The chain of the Great Learning's opening, cut to its middle links and reworded: to cultivate the person (脩身), first set the heart right (正心); to set the heart right, first make the intention sincere (誠意); to make the intention sincere, first extend knowledge (致知). Tolstoy's 1903 version (Thoughts of Wise Men, 23 October), repeated in the Circle with «И всё это» for «Но всё это», makes the cultivated person «нравственного совершенства» (moral perfection), the right heart «душевной чистоте» (purity of soul), and the sincere intention two things, «сердце ищет правды и воля стремится к святости» (the heart seeks truth and the will strives toward holiness); 'extending knowledge' becomes «истинного знания» (true knowledge). Legge: 'Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge.' The Jubilee commentary (vol. 40) says the Great Learning of Thoughts of Wise Men came from D. P. Konissi's Russian («Великая наука Конфуция», Вопросы философии и психологии, 1893, кн. 16), which was not found online; whether «святость» (holiness) is Konissi's or Tolstoy's is not known. Pauthier's French, which Tolstoy also owned, is given for comparison ('donner de la droiture à leur âme … rendre leurs intentions pures et sincères'); it has no holiness either.
8. Ум укрепляется или расслабляется чтением решительно так же, как тело свежим или гнилым воздухом.
8. The mind is strengthened or weakened by reading in exactly the same way as the body is by fresh or foul air.
From Fors Clavigera, Letter LXXXV 'Unique Dogmatism' · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedRuskin’s test of judgment becomes a law of reading: “the sense, to a healthy mind, of being strengthened or enervated by reading,” as “definite and unmistakeable” as the sense of fresh or foul air, becomes “The mind is strengthened or weakened by reading in exactly the same way as the body is by fresh or foul air.”
John Ruskin’s own wordsAnd for the moral tendency of books — no such practised sagacity is needed to determine that.
The sense, to a healthy mind, of being strengthened or enervated by reading, is just as definite and unmistakeable as the sense, to a healthy body, of being in fresh or foul air …
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · На каждый деньУм укрепляется изучением нужного и важного для человека и расслабляется изучением ненужного и ничтожного решительно так же, как тело укрепляется или расслабляется свежим или гнилым воздухом или пищей.
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fors Clavigera, Letter LXXXV 'Unique Dogmatism' (January 1878); vol. IV of the George Allen edition, 1906, Letter LXXXV, pp. 289–290, in Ruskin's reply to a critique in the Spectator of 22 September 1877, after 'And for the moral tendency of books'.
Changed in its point. Ruskin claims that anyone can judge a book's moral tendency at once: 'The sense, to a healthy mind, of being strengthened or enervated by reading, is just as definite and unmistakeable as the sense, to a healthy body, of being in fresh or foul air.' Tolstoy drops 'the sense … is just as definite and unmistakeable' and both 'healthy', and states the effect itself: 'The mind is strengthened or weakened by reading exactly as the body by fresh or foul air' (Ум укрепляется или расслабляется чтением решительно так же, как тело свежим или гнилым воздухом). A test of judgment becomes a law of reading. Tolstoy reworked the thought again in На каждый день (20 January, no. 8; Tolstoy's own version) and in Путь жизни (1910, ch. XIX, § V, no. 3), where 'reading' becomes 'the study of what is needed and important' and 'air' 'air or food'. No printable.
Сомнительно знание, вызывающее споры.
Knowledge that gives rise to disputes is doubtful.
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