In countries in which there is a state religion, the children are taught the senseless blasphemies of ecclesiastical catechisms, in which the necessity of obeying the powers is pointed out; in republican governments they are taught the savage superstition of patriotism, and the same imaginary obligation of obeying the authorities.
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- The Kingdom of God Is Within You; source text line 6955; English translation: Leo Wiener
- The Kingdom of God Is Within You; source text line 6955
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Leo TolstoyThere is only one enduring happiness in life — to live for others.Leo TolstoyAt a more advanced age, this hypnotization is continued by encouraging the religious and the patriotic superstitions.Leo TolstoyWhy do free, wealthy men consider it an honour to perform lackeys' duties to crowned heads, why do they humble themselves, and flatter them, and pretend that they believe in the special grandeur of these persons?Leo TolstoyThink of your duties,--not of your imaginary duties as a landowner to your estate, of a merchant to your capital, of an emperor, minister, official to the state,--but of those real duties of yours, which result from your real condition of existence, which is called into life and is endowed with reason and love.Leo TolstoyNothing, on the contrary, proves the absence of patriotism in the masses with such obviousness as those tense efforts which now are made by the governments and the ruling classes for the artificial excitation of patriotism, and the insignificant results which are obtained in spite of all the efforts.Leo Tolstoy
Leo TolstoyThere is only one enduring happiness in life — to live for others.Leo TolstoyAt a more advanced age, this hypnotization is continued by encouraging the religious and the patriotic superstitions.Leo TolstoyWhy do free, wealthy men consider it an honour to perform lackeys' duties to crowned heads, why do they humble themselves, and flatter them, and pretend that they believe in the special grandeur of these persons?Leo TolstoyThink of your duties,--not of your imaginary duties as a landowner to your estate, of a merchant to your capital, of an emperor, minister, official to the state,--but of those real duties of yours, which result from your real condition of existence, which is called into life and is endowed with reason and love.Leo TolstoyNothing, on the contrary, proves the absence of patriotism in the masses with such obviousness as those tense efforts which now are made by the governments and the ruling classes for the artificial excitation of patriotism, and the insignificant results which are obtained in spite of all the efforts.Leo TolstoyMore inspiration
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