4Mayмая · 4-е мая
Всякая мысль, выраженная словами, есть сила, действие которой беспредельно.
Every thought expressed in words is a force whose effect is boundless.
1. Можно быть одиноким в своей частной и временной среде, но каждая из наших мыслей и каждое из наших чувств находит, находило и будет находить свой отголосок в человечестве. Для некоторых людей, которых большая часть человечества признает своими вождями и просветителями, отголосок этот огромен и раздается с особенной силой; но нет человека, мысли которого не производили бы на других такого же, хотя и во много раз меньшего действия. Всякое искреннее проявление души, всякое заявление личного убеждения служит кому-нибудь или чему-нибудь, — даже если не знают об этом и даже когда зажимают вам рот или накидывают мертвую петлю на шею. Слово, сказанное кому-нибудь, сохраняет неразрушимое действие и, как всякое движение, превращается в иные формы, но не уничтожается.
1. We may be solitary in our own private and passing surroundings, but each of our thoughts and each of our feelings finds, has found, and will find its echo in humanity. For some people, whom the greater part of humanity acknowledges as its leaders and enlighteners, this echo is enormous and resounds with particular force; but there is no man whose thoughts do not produce on others the same kind of effect, though many times smaller. Every sincere expression of the soul, every declaration of personal conviction, serves someone or something — even if no one knows of it, and even when they stop your mouth or throw a noose around your neck. A word said to someone retains an indestructible effect and, like all motion, is transformed into other forms but is not annihilated.
From Fragments d'un journal intime · close to the original .
Original · FrenchOn peut être isolé dans son milieu particulier et temporaire, mais chacune de nos pensées et chacun de nos sentiments trouve, a trouvé et trouvera son écho dans l'humanité.
L'écho est immense, retentissant pour certains hommes représentatifs que de grandes fractions de l'humanité adoptent comme guides, révélateurs, réformateurs …
Toute manifestation sincère de l'âme, tout témoignage rendu à une conviction personnelle sert à quelqu'un et à quelque chose, lors même qu'on ne le sait pas, et qu'une main se pose sur votre bouche ou qu'un nœud coulant vous prend à la gorge.
Une parole dite à quelqu'un conserve un effet indestructible, comme un mouvement quelconque se métamorphose sans s'anéantir.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1885A man may be isolated in his own particular and temporary _milieu_, but every one of our thoughts or feelings finds, has found, and will find, its echo in humanity.
Such an echo is immense and far-resounding in the case of those representative men who have been adopted by great fractions of humanity as guides, revealers, and reformers; but it exists for everybody.
A word spoken to some one preserves an indestructible influence, just as any movement whatever may be metamorphosed, but not undone.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragments d'un journal intime, Journal, 19 mars 1868 (7th ed., Geneva 1897, t. II, p. 25); Ward's translation, March 19, 1868.
Five sentences of the entry, in order, translated closely. Amiel's three names for the great echoers, 'guides, révélateurs, réformateurs', become two, «вождями и просветителями»; his short 'mais il n'est nul pour personne' (but it is nil for no one) is spelled out as «но нет человека, мысли которого не производили бы на других такого же, хотя и во много раз меньшего действия» ('no man whose thoughts do not have the same effect on others, though many times smaller'). The entry's sentence before this one, 'L'individualisme absolu est une niaiserie', and its call to act after it are left out. M. L. Tolstaya's Russian selection, «Из дневника Амиеля» (Посредник, 1901), named in the Jubilee list of the Circle's sources, was not seen.
2. Добрые правила, исходящие из сердца человека, так же полезны, как хорошие примеры.
2. Good precepts that come from a man’s heart are as useful as good examples.
From Epistulae morales ad Lucilium · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedSeneca’s condition, precepts “often welcomed within you,” becomes their source: precepts “that come from a man’s heart.”
Original · LatinAeque praecepta bona, si saepe tecum sint, profutura quam bona exempla.
Source text: thelatinlibrary.comIn English · Richard Mott Gummere, 1925It is, that good precepts, often welcomed within you, will benefit you just as much as good examples.
Source text: en.wikisource.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 94.42.
Seneca, answering an objector who asks what his comparison is for: "good precepts, if they are often with you (si saepe tecum sint), will profit you as much as good examples." Tolstoy keeps the precepts, the examples, and the comparison, and replaces the condition with «исходящие из сердца человека» (coming from a person's heart): Seneca speaks of precepts kept by one often, Tolstoy of precepts coming from the heart. The next sentence of the letter, on brief and weighty sayings, is quoted under 5-4.4, signed Cicero on the same day. Where Tolstoy read it was not found; Ramage's Beautiful Thoughts from Latin Authors gives another sentence of Letter 94.
3. Мысли, которые вы имеете и высказываете, превращаются, в конце концов, в способность делать добро или зло, которое в своем развитии или росте возвращается к вам же.
3. The thoughts you have and express turn, in the end, into a capacity to do good or evil, a good or evil that in its development or growth comes back to you.
From The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changed“The thought you think or the act you do” becomes “the thoughts you have and express,” so speech takes the place of the act, and “stored power for good or evil” becomes “a capacity to do good or evil.”
Lucy Mallory’s own wordsThe thought you think or the act you do, is stored pov/er for good or evil, and that power, with its growth or increase, comes back to him who sent it forth.
Source text: iapsop.comDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic (Lucy A. Mallory's journal, Portland, Oregon), vol. XIV, no. 12, January–February 1902, p. 180, the last of the editor's paragraphs on the page, signed 'L. A. M.'.
Reworded. Mallory's 'The thought you think or the act you do' becomes 'The thoughts that you have and express' (Мысли, которые вы имеете и высказываете): the act drops out and speech takes its place. 'Is stored power for good or evil' becomes 'turn, in the end, into a capacity to do good or evil' (превращаются, в конце концов, в способность делать добро или зло); 'with its growth or increase' is kept (в своем развитии или росте); 'comes back to him who sent it forth' becomes 'returns to you yourself' (возвращается к вам же). The same page holds 'Thought-Elementals', the probable source of 5-4.6, the day's other Mallory thought. The text is the text layer of IAPSOP's PDF of the issue ('pov/er' is its misreading of 'power'); the archive.org scan of vol. XIV (saved as IAPSOP-worlds_advance_thought_v14_1901-1902_partial_djvu.txt) reads 'stored power'. Mallory restated her aphorisms from issue to issue, and a wording closer to Tolstoy's may be in an issue that is not online. No printable.
4. Сильные, коротко выраженные мысли много содействуют улучшению жизни.
4. Strong thoughts, briefly expressed, do much for the improvement of life.
Probably from De finibus bonorum et malorum · reworded by Tolstoy .
Not in Leo Tolstoy as EditorCicero is only a candidate: in De finibus II.20 he calls Epicurus’s Principal Doctrines “sentences of the greatest weight for living happily, briefly expressed,” but the line may come through an anthology, or from Seneca’s Letter 94.43.
Original · Latin… in alio vero libro, in quo breviter comprehensis gravissimis sententiis quasi oracula edidisse sapientiae dicitur, scribit his verbis …
… quia gravissimae sint ad beate vivendum breviter enuntiatae sententiae …
Source text: thelatinlibrary.comIn English · C. D. Yonge, 1853But in another book, in which he utters opinions of the greatest weight in a concise form of words, and in which he is said to have delivered oracles of wisdom, he writes in those words which you are well acquainted with, 0 Torquatus.
… because they are sentiments of the greatest gravity intended to guide men to a happy life, and enunciated with suitable brevity.
Source text: archive.orgRelated · Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 94Quis autem negabit feriri quibusdam praeceptis efficaciter etiam inperitissimos? velut his brevissimis vocibus, sed multum habentibus ponderis: …
Source text: thelatinlibrary.comDetails
A likely source, not certain. De finibus bonorum et malorum, II.20 (II.7.20).
The nearest passage found in Cicero: in De finibus II.20 he calls Epicurus's Principal Doctrines (κύριαι δόξαι) "sentences of the greatest weight for living happily, briefly expressed" (gravissimae ad beate vivendum breviter enuntiatae sententiae). «Сильные» answers gravissimae, «коротко выраженные» breviter enuntiatae, «мысли» sententiae, and «много содействуют улучшению жизни» (do much to better life) ad beate vivendum; Cicero speaks of one book of Epicurus's, Tolstoy of strong short thoughts in general. Candidate: the line may come through an anthology, and Seneca says much the same in the sentence after the source of 5-4.2 (Letter 94.43, quoted as related: precepts in "very brief sayings, but having much weight" strike even the most ignorant). If the source is Seneca's, the signature is wrong; this is not certain. Yonge's scan reads "0 Torquatus" for "O Torquatus".
5. Невинность и детство священны. Сеятель, кидающий семена, отец или мать, которые бросают в душу ребенка плодотворное слово, совершают священное дело и должны бы всегда совершать его религиозно, с благоговением и молитвой, ибо они трудятся для царствия божия. Всякий посев есть дело таинственное, — попадает ли семя на земную почву, или в души человеческие. Всякий человек подобен земледельцу; вся задача его, если ее хорошо понять, заключается в разработке жизни и рассевании ее повсюду; таково призвание человечества, и призвание это свято. И слово — его главное орудие.
Мы слишком часто забываем, что слово в одно и то же время — и посев и откровение. Последствия слова, сказанного вовремя, неисчислимы. О, как глубоко значение слова, но мы тупы, потому что мы телесны! Мы видим камни, деревья по сторонам дороги, обстановку наших жилищ, мы видим всё, чтó есть вещество. Но мы не замечаем вереницы невидимых мыслей, которые наполняют воздух и постоянно бьют своим крылом вокруг каждого из нас.
5. Innocence and childhood are sacred. The sower scattering seed, the father or mother casting a fruitful word into a child’s soul, are doing a sacred work and ought always to do it religiously, with reverence and prayer, for they labor for the kingdom of God. All sowing is a mysterious work, whether the seed falls on earthly soil or into human souls. Every man is like a farmer; his whole task, if it is rightly understood, lies in cultivating life and sowing it everywhere; such is the calling of humanity, and this calling is holy. And the word is its chief instrument.
We too often forget that the word is at one and the same time both a sowing and a revelation. The consequences of a word spoken in season are beyond counting. Oh, how deep the meaning of the word is, but we are dull, because we are corporeal! We see the stones, the trees along the road, the furnishings of our dwellings; we see everything that is matter. But we do not notice the train of invisible thoughts that fill the air and constantly beat their wings around each of us.
From Fragments d'un journal intime · close to the original .
Original · FrenchL'innocence et l'enfance sont sacrées. Le semeur qui jette le grain, le père où la mère qui jette la parole féconde, accomplissent un acte de pontife et ne devraient le faire qu'avec religion, avec prière et gravité …
Toute scmaille est une chose mystérieuse, qu'elle tombe dans le sol ou dans les âmes. L'homme est un colon; toute son œuvre, à la bien prendre, est de développer la vie, de la semer partout; c'est la mission de l'humanité, et cette mission est divine. Son grand moyen est la parole.
Nous oublions trop souvent que le langage est à la fois un ensemencement et une révélation.
Nous voyons les pierres et les arbres du chemin, les meubles de nos maisons, tout ce qui est chose et matière ; nous ne distinguons pas les phalanges des idées invisibles qui peuplent l'air et battent perpétuellement de l'aile autour de chacun de nous.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1885Innocence and childhood are sacred. The sower who casts in the seed, the father or mother casting in the fruitful word are accomplishing a pontifical act and ought to perform it with religious awe, with prayer and gravity, for they are laboring at the kingdom of God.
We forget too often that language is both a seed-sowing and a revelation.
We have no eyes for the invisible phalanxes of ideas which people the air and hover incessantly around each one of us.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Fragments d'un journal intime, Journal, 2 mai 1852, Lancy (7th ed., Geneva 1897, t. I, pp. 53–54); Ward's translation, May 2, 1852.
A continuous stretch of the entry, translated closely and split by Tolstoy into two paragraphs. Small changes: 'un acte de pontife' (a priestly act) becomes «священное дело» ('a sacred work'); the parents throw the fruitful word «в душу ребенка» ('into the child's soul'), words Amiel does not have; 'L'homme est un colon' (man is a settler) becomes «Всякий человек подобен земледельцу» ('every man is like a husbandman'); 'cette mission est divine' becomes «призвание это свято»; 'les meubles de nos maisons' becomes «обстановку наших жилищ». The saved French reads 'Toute scmaille' (OCR for 'semaille') and 'le père où la mère'. M. L. Tolstaya's Russian selection (1901) was not seen.
6. Мысль есть разумная жизненная сила, которая, выходя из человека, делает или дело проклятия, или дело благословения, смотря по своему качеству.
6. Thought is a rational vital force which, going out from a man, does either the work of a curse or the work of a blessing, according to its quality.
Probably from The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic · reworded by Tolstoy .
Not in Leo Tolstoy as EditorThe nearest found is a page of Mallory’s journal (January–February 1902), which has the thought sent out from the one who thinks it, the blessing and the curse, and “according to their quality”; “rational vital force” is in none of its sentences, and the source is only probable.
Lucy Mallory’s own wordsBlessings are involved in all things rightfully used; wrong use turns them into curses.
… houghtb become elementals when sent out with force.
These thought-forms do well or ill according to their quality.
Source text: iapsop.comDetails
A likely source, not certain. The World's Advance-Thought and the Universal Republic (Lucy A. Mallory's journal, Portland, Oregon), vol. XIV, no. 12, January–February 1902, pp. 179–180: an aphorism at the foot of p. 179, and 'Thought-Elementals', an unsigned paragraph among the editor's at the head of p. 180.
Probably Tolstoy's condensation of this page, but not certain. Tolstoy's sentence ('Thought is a rational vital force which, going out from a person, does either a work of cursing or a work of blessing, according to its quality') shares with 'Thought-Elementals' the thought sent out from the one who thinks it and the closing 'according to their quality' (смотря по своему качеству); the blessing and the curse are in the aphorism just above it ('Blessings are involved in all things rightfully used; wrong use turns them into curses') and in another on p. 180 ('ignorance turns them into curses'). 'Rational vital force' (разумная жизненная сила) is in none of them, and 'do well or ill' is not 'a work of cursing or of blessing'. The same page has the source of 5-4.3, the day's other Mallory thought, which makes this issue Tolstoy's likely reading for May 4. 'Thought-Elementals' is unsigned, among the editor's paragraphs; 'houghtb' is the text layer's reading of 'Thoughts', its initial letter lost. A sentence of Mallory's closer to Tolstoy's may be in an issue that is not online.
Searched: The text layers of IAPSOP's PDFs of all 60 issues online from March 1897 to June 1906, and the saved archive.org scans of vols. II no. 1, III–VI, XIV–XVI, and XIX–XXII, for 'vital force', 'intelligent', 'according to its quality' and 'according to their quality', 'curse' near 'bless', and 'goes out from'; archive.org full text for 'intelligent vital force', 'thought is an intelligent', 'cursing or blessing', and 'work of cursing'; Jubilee vols. 40 (Thoughts of Wise Men), 43 and 45.
Translation note. The Russian italic is broken only at the comma; it is set here as one span.
7. Истина, выраженная словами, есть могущественнейшая сила в жизни людей. Мы не сознаем эту силу только потому, что последствия ее не тотчас обнаруживаются.
7. Truth expressed in words is the mightiest force in human life. We are not conscious of this force only because its consequences do not show themselves at once.
Пользуйся добрыми мыслями людей, и если не можешь воздать им тем же, то, по крайней мере, не распространяй неясных и потому ложных своих или чужих мыслей.
Make use of people’s good thoughts, and if you cannot repay them in kind, then at least do not spread thoughts, your own or others’, that are unclear and therefore false.
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