2016年7月14日 星期四

"Confession" "Where Love Is, God Is" -- an essay by Leo Tolstoy

"At first he meant only to read on holidays, but having once begun he found it made his heart so light that he read every day. Sometimes he was so absorbed in his reading that the oil in his lamp burnt out before he could tear himself away from the book."
—from "Where Love Is, God Is" (1885) by Leo Tolstoy





"The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless."
--from "Confession" (1882)
"Confession" -- an essay by Leo Tolstoy on his religious thoughts -- shows the great author in process of looking for answers to profound questions that trouble all who take them on: "What will come of my life?" and "What is the meaning of life?": these are questions whose answers were an absolute requirement for Tolstoy. In the course of the essay, Tolstoy shows different attempts to find answers on the examples of science, philosophy, eastern wisdom and the opinions of his fellow novelists. . . . finding no workable solution in any of these, Tolstoy recognizes the deep religious convictions of ordinary people as containing the key to true answers.

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