Leo Tolstoy

It is terrible when people do not know God, but it is worse when people identify as God what is not God.

Prayer is addressed to the personal God, not because he is personal indeed, I know for certain that he is not personal, because personality is limitation, while God is unlimited.

Don't seek God in temples. He is close to you. He is within you. Only you should surrender to Him and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.

God cannot be understood by logical reasoning but only by submission.

The Christian religion seems to exclude the possibility of life only when men mistake the pointing to an ideal as the laying down of a rule. It is only then that the principles presented in Christ’s teaching appear to be destructive of life. These principles, on the contrary, are the only ones that make true life possible.

All the congresses of both hemispheres may vote against war, and against dueling too, but above all arbitrations, conventions, and legislations there will always be the personal honor of individual men, which has always demanded dueling, and the interests of nations, which will always demand war." - Camille Doucet

The Christian will not dispute with anyone, nor attack anyone, nor use violence against anyone. On the contrary, he will bear violence without opposing it. But by this very attitude to violence, he will not only himself be free, but will free the whole world from all external power.

The sobs and cries of the crowd of women grew louder and more heart-rending, and the men’s faces grew darker and darker. But they were surrounded by troops, and the torture did not cease until it had reached the limit that had been fixed by the caprice of the miserable half-drunken and insane creature they called the governor.

Criticisms and Misunderstandings of Non-Resistance

Tolstoy addresses the criticisms and misunderstandings surrounding the doctrine of non-resistance. Both believers and non-believers often dismiss non-resistance as impractical or naive. Tolstoy counters these arguments by pointing out the moral and logical inconsistencies in justifying violence. He cites historical figures like William Lloyd Garrison and Adin Ballou, who advocated for non-resistance and faced significant opposition. Tolstoy emphasizes that the True essence of Christianity is often lost when its teachings are compromised for the sake of practicality or state interests. 'The sole escape from it for them lies in their hope that they may be able, by using the authority of the Church, of antiquity, and of their sacred office, to overawe the reader,' he critiques.

The Incompatibility of True Christianity with State Authority

Tolstoy argues that True Christianity, which emphasizes meekness, forgiveness, and love, is fundamentally incompatible with the authority of the state. He illustrates this by describing individuals who refuse to comply with state demands such as taking oaths, paying taxes, or serving in the military, based on their Christian beliefs. These actions, though seemingly insignificant, strike at the very foundation of state power. 'The whole authority of the state is based on the compliance with these unchristian demands,' he asserts. By refusing to participate in these state obligations, individuals demonstrate the moral conflict between Christian teachings and state requirements, thereby undermining the state's authority.

The Inevitability of Adopting the Christian Conception of Life

Tolstoy discusses the transition from the pagan conception of life to the Christian one, arguing that humanity is inevitably moving towards the latter. He compares this transition to the historical shift from personal, animalistic views of life to socialized views. Just as the social conception of life once seemed incomprehensible and mystical, the Christian principles of universal brotherhood, equality, and non-violence will eventually become natural and simple. 'The time will come and is inevitably coming when all institutions based on force will disappear through their uselessness, stupidity, and even inconvenience becoming obvious to all,' he predicts.

Christ’s teaching, which came to be known to men, not by means of violence and the sword, but by means of non-resistance to evil, gentleness, meekness, and peacefulness, can only be diffused through the world by the example of peace, harmony, and love among its followers.

The follower of Christ, whose service means an ever-growing understanding of his teaching, and an ever-closer fulfillment of it, in progress toward perfection, cannot, just because he is a follower of Christ, claim for himself or any other that he understands Christ’s teaching fully and fulfills it.

A man cannot get rid of the responsibility for his own actions.

Christ’s teaching, which came to be known to men, not by means of violence and the sword, but by means of non-resistance to evil, gentleness, meekness, and peacefulness, can only be diffused through the world by the example of peace, harmony, and love among its followers." - Leo Tolstoy

Helchitsky’s fundamental idea is that Christianity, by allying itself with temporal power in the days of Constantine, and by continuing to develop in such conditions, has become completely distorted, and has ceased to be Christian altogether.

The first and crudest form of reply consists in the bold assertion that the use of force is not opposed by the teaching of Christ; that it is permitted, and even enjoined, on the Christian by the Old and New Testaments.

Christians do not need government, and therefore they cannot either obey it in what is contrary to Christ’s teaching nor, still less, take part in it.

This declaration of Garrison’s gave so powerful and eloquent an expression of a confession of faith of such importance to men, that one would have thought it must have produced a strong impression on people, and have become known throughout the world and the subject of discussion on every side.

The history of mankind is crowded with evidences proving that physical coercion is not adapted to moral regeneration, and that the sinful dispositions of men can be subdued only by love; that evil can be exterminated only by good." - William Lloyd Garrison

It is a marvelous book from every point of view.

The law of state necessity can force only those to change the law of God who, for the sake of earthly gains, try to reconcile the irreconcilable; but for a Christian who sincerely believes that following Christ’s teaching will give him salvation, such considerations of state can have no force." - Leo Tolstoy

The Christian view of life has exerted an influence on the Jewish and heathen, and the heathen and Jewish view of life has, too, exerted an influence on the Christian.

The longer mankind lived, the clearer and clearer became the meaning of Christianity, as must always be the case with every theory of life.

The more the understanding of Christ’s teaching was obscured, the more the miraculous was introduced into it; and the more the miraculous was introduced into it, the more the doctrine was strained from its meaning and the more obscure it became.

The less the doctrine was understood, the more obscure it appeared and the more necessary were external proofs of its truth.

The Church, as an institution that asserted that it possessed infallible truth, did not make its appearance singly; there were at least two churches that directly made this claim.

Every so-called heresy, regarding, as it does, its own creed as the truth, can just as easily find in Church history a series of illustrations of its own creed.

The more these confirmations of truth by tales of miracles were heaped up one after another, the more the doctrine was distorted from its original meaning, and the more incomprehensible it became.

Every church traces its creed through an uninterrupted transmission from Christ and the Apostles.

The formation of this philosophy of life appropriate to humanity in the new conditions on which it is entering, and of the practice resulting from it, is what is called religion.

The essence of this state is that under the influence of one suggestion they lose the power of criticizing their actions, and therefore do, without thinking, everything consistent with the suggestion to which they are led by example, precept, or insinuation.

The churches are everywhere the same, and if the Catholic, the Anglican, or the Lutheran Church has not at hand a government as compliant as the Russian, it is not due to any indisposition to profit by such a government.

A church is a body of men who claim for themselves that they are in complete and sole possession of the truth.

Heresy is the opinion of the men who do not admit the infallibility of the Church’s truth.

The churches as churches are not, as many people suppose, institutions that have Christian principles for their basis, even though they may have strayed a little away from the straight path. The churches as churches, as bodies that assert their own infallibility, are institutions opposed to Christianity.

The man who believes in a God, in a Christ coming again in glory to judge and to punish the living and the dead, cannot believe in the Christ who told us to turn the left cheek, do not judge, forgive those that wrong us, and love our enemies.

The teaching of every Church, with its redemption and sacraments, excludes the teaching of Christ, most of all the teaching of the Orthodox Church with its idolatrous observances.

The inconsistency of all church forms of religion with the teaching of Christ is, of course, the reason why special efforts are necessary to conceal this inconsistency from people.

These three views of life are as follows: first, embracing the individual, or the animal view of life; second, embracing the society, or the pagan view of life; third, embracing the whole world, or the divine view of life.

The whole historic existence of mankind is nothing else than the gradual transition from the personal, animal conception of life to the social conception of life, and from the social conception of life to the divine conception of life.

The Christian doctrine is presented to the men of our world today as a doctrine that everyone has known so long and accepted so unhesitatingly in all its minutest details that it cannot be understood in any other way than it is understood now.

The chief and most pernicious work of the Church is that which is directed to the deception of children.

Christianity recognizes love of self, of family, of nation, and of humanity, and not only of humanity, but also of everything living, everything existing; it recognizes the necessity of an infinite extension of the sphere of love.

Life according to Christ’s teaching consists of nothing but this setting free of the Son of God, existing in every man, from the animal, and in bringing him closer to the Father.

The aim of the proposed institution (the institution of an international board of arbitration) is that the nations of Europe may cease to be nations of robbers, and their armies, bands of brigands." - Catholic priest Defourney

To suggest to governments that they should not have recourse to violence, but should decide their misunderstandings in accordance with equity, is inviting them to abolish themselves as rulers, and no government can ever consent to do that.

But since it is on the army that the power of government rests, it will never give up the army, and the use of the army in war.

The error arises from the learned jurists deceiving themselves and others, by asserting that government is not what it really is, one set of men banded together to oppress another set of men, but, as shown by science, is the representation of the citizens in their collective capacity.

And so governments can never be brought to consent to diminish the number of these drilled slaves, who constitute their whole power and importance.

We are enslaved by the laws we set up for our protection, which have become our oppression. We are but the tools of that autocratic abstraction the state, which enslaves each individual in the name of the will of all, who would all, taken individually, desire exactly the opposite of what they will be made to do." - Edouard Rod

Every condition, according to this doctrine, is only a particular stage, of no consequence in itself, on the way toward unattainable perfection, and therefore in itself it does not imply a greater or lesser degree of life.

The fulfillment of Christ’s teaching consists in moving away from self toward God. It is obvious that there cannot be definite laws and rules for this fulfillment of the teaching.

The Christian doctrine to love God and serve him, and only as a result of that love to love and serve one’s neighbor, seems to scientific men obscure, mystic, and arbitrary.

The Christian doctrine shows man that the essence of his soul is love – that his happiness depends not on loving this or that object, but on loving the principle of the whole – God, whom he recognizes within himself as love, and therefore he loves all things and all men.

The Christian doctrine brings a man to the elementary consciousness of self, only not of the animal self, but of the divine self, the divine spark, the self as the Son of God, as much God as the Father himself, though confined in an animal husk.

Humanity can no more go backward in its development than the individual man. Men have outlived the social, family, and state conceptions of life. Now they must go forward and assimilate the next and higher conception of life, which is what is now taking place.

The whole life of the upper classes is a constant inconsistency. The more delicate a man’s conscience is, the more painful this contradiction is to him.

All men of the modern world exist in a state of continual and flagrant antagonism between their conscience and their way of life.

The division of men into two castes and the use of force in government and war are opposed to every moral principle professed by our modern society.

All depends, therefore, on the strength of the consciousness of Christian truth on the part of each individual man.

The whole existence of modern times is defined by laws. A man marries and is divorced, educates his children, and even (in many countries) professes his religious faith in accordance with the law.

The basis of authority is bodily violence. The possibility of applying bodily violence to people is provided above all by an organization of armed men, trained to act in unison in submission to one will.

The taxes raised from the people for war preparations absorb the greater part of the produce of labor that the army ought to defend.

The governments of our day – all of them, the most despotic and the liberal alike – have become what Herzen so well called “Genghis Khan with the telegraph”; that is to say, organizations of violence based on no principle but the grossest tyranny.

Violence no longer rests on the belief in its utility, but only on the fact of its having existed so long, and being organized by the ruling classes who profit by it, so that those who are under their authority cannot extricate themselves from it.

The circle is complete, and there is no chance of breaking through it by force.

The position of our Christian society, and especially the ideals most current in it, prove this in a strikingly convincing way.

Christianity cannot, as its Founder said, be realized by the majority of men all at once; it must grow like a huge tree from a tiny seed.

The violence of internal feud crushed by authority reappears in authority itself, which falls into the hands of men who, like the rest, are frequently or always ready to sacrifice the public welfare to their personal interest.

The oppression of the oppressed always goes on growing up to the furthest limit, beyond which it cannot go without killing the goose with the golden eggs.

In ratio to the duration and increasing strength of authority its advantages for its subjects disappear and its disadvantages increase.

The power of the state, far from being a security against the attacks of our neighbors, exposes us, on the contrary, to much greater danger of such attacks.

The question will be finally decided beyond appeal by the religious consciousness or conscience of every man who is forced, whether he will or no, through universal conscription, to face the question whether the state is to continue to exist or not.

Christianity is a new and higher conception of life. A new conception of life cannot be imposed on men; it can only be freely assimilated.

The Christian religion is not a legal system that, being imposed by violence, may transform men’s lives. Christianity is a new and higher conception of life.

The corruption of Christianity and its acceptance in its corrupt form by the majority of men was as necessary as it is that the seed should remain hidden for a certain time in the earth in order to germinate.

A Christian cannot fail to be free, because the attainment of the aim he sets before himself cannot be prevented or even hindered by anyone or anything.

The Christian is independent of human authority, because he acknowledges God’s authority alone. His law, revealed by Christ, he recognizes in himself, and voluntarily obeys it.

Government authority, even if it does suppress private violence, always introduces into the life of men fresh forms of violence, which tend to become greater and greater in proportion to the duration and strength of the government.

Universal military service was an inevitable logical necessity, to which we were bound to come. But it is also the last expression of the inconsistency inherent in the social conception of life, when violence is needed to maintain it.

Until every individual man makes the Christian conception of life his own, and begins to live in accordance with it, there can be no solution of the problem of human life, and no establishment of a new form of life.

Christianity does not attack it at all, but, from within, it destroys all the foundations on which government rests.

I know that I do not need to divide myself off from other nations, and therefore I cannot admit that I belong exclusively to any state or nation, or that I owe allegiance to any government.

The profession of true Christianity not only excludes the possibility of recognizing government, but also even destroys its very foundations.

The good cannot seize power, nor retain it; to do this men must love power. And love of power is inconsistent with goodness; but quite consistent with the very opposite qualities – pride, cunning, cruelty.

Without the aggrandizement of self and the abasement of others, without hypocrisies and deceptions, without prisons, fortresses, executions, and murders, no power can come into existence or be maintained.

If a man, through the growth of a higher conscience, can no longer comply with the demands of government, he finds himself cramped by it and at the same time no longer needs its protection.

All men who happen to be in authority assert that their authority is necessary to keep the bad from oppressing the good, assuming that they themselves are the good par excellence, who protect other good people from the bad.

According to Christ’s teaching the good are those who are meek and long-suffering, do not resist evil by force, forgive injuries, and love their enemies; those are wicked who exalt themselves, oppress, strive, and use force.

The progressive movement of humanity does not proceed from the better elements in society seizing power and making those who are subject to them better, by forcible means, as both conservatives and revolutionists imagine.

Power selects and attracts the worst elements of society, transforms them, improves and softens them, and returns them to society.

The social organization is as good as it is not as a result of force, but in spite of it.

That is all that life is, to learn the unknown, and to adapt our actions to this new knowledge.

The sole guide that directs men and nations has always been and is the unseen, intangible, underlying force, the resultant of all the spiritual forces of a certain people, or of all humanity, which finds its outward expression in public opinion.

The use of violence only weakens this force, hinders it and corrupts it, and tries to replace it by another that, far from being conducive to the progress of humanity, is detrimental to it.

We cannot know the conditions of the new order of life in advance because we have to create them by our own labors.

Very often now, it is not the oppressed who strive to attain the position of the oppressors, and try to imitate them, but on the contrary the oppressors who voluntarily abandon the advantages of their position, prefer the condition of the oppressed, and try to resemble them in the simplicity of their life.

Every man of the present day is under the necessity of taking part in the cruelties of pagan life, or of refusing all participation in them.

The freedom of all men will be brought about only through the freedom of individual persons becomes more and more clear as time goes on.

All state obligations are against the conscience of a Christian – the oath of allegiance, taxes, law proceedings, and military service. And the whole power of the government rests on these very obligations.

The time will come and is inevitably coming when all institutions based on force will disappear through their uselessness, stupidity, and even inconvenience becoming obvious to all.

The organization of our society rests, not as people interested in maintaining the present order of things like to imagine, on certain principles of jurisprudence, but on simple brute force, on the murder and torture of men.

The decisions of the higher authorities are carried into effect by means of murder or torture, or threats of one or the other, according to whether they meet with resistance or not.

The governor, on arriving, stepped out of his carriage, delivered a prepared harangue, and asked for the culprits and a bench.

The miserable governor, intoxicated with power, was counting the strokes on his fingers, and never left off smoking cigarettes, while several officious persons hastened on every opportunity to offer him a burning match to light them.

The Only Way Out of our Position Lies, if not in Renouncing our Position and our Privileges, at Least in Recognizing our Sin and not Justifying it nor Disguising it.

All the advantages the rich have over the poor are based on nothing but flogging, imprisonment, and murder.

All these men are ready to face any kind of privation, suffering, or danger rather than consent to do what they regard as wrong.

All these people are within half an hour of reaching the place where, in order to provide a wealthy young man with three thousand rubles stolen from a whole community of famishing peasants, they may be forced to commit the most horrible acts one can conceive, to murder or torture, as was done in Orel, innocent beings, their brothers.

The existing order is the order that must and ought to exist at the present time, and that therefore to support it is the sacred duty of every man.

What forces these men to the false reasoning that the existing order is unchanging, and that therefore they ought to support it, when it is so obvious, on the contrary, that it is only unchanging because they themselves support it?

All violence rests, we know, on those who do the beating, the handcuffing, the imprisoning, and the killing with their own hands.

Everyone in our Christian society knows, either by tradition or by revelation or by the voice of conscience, that murder is one of the most fearful crimes a man can commit, as the Gospel tells us, and that the sin of murder cannot be limited to certain persons, that is, murder cannot be a sin for some and not a sin for others.

This belief is founded on a conscious deception practiced on them by the higher classes. And it cannot be otherwise. To compel the lower classes, which are more numerous, to oppress and ill-treat themselves, even at the cost of actions opposed to their conscience, it was necessary to deceive them. And it has been done accordingly.

The state is so organized that wherever a man is placed in the social scale, his irresponsibility is the same. The higher his grade the more he is under the influence of demands from below, and the less he is controlled by orders from above, and vice versa.

The recognition of the life of every man as sacred is the first and only basis of all ethics.

The doctrine of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth has been abrogated by Christianity, because it is the justification of immorality, and a mere semblance of equity, and has no real meaning.

This strange and abnormal condition of men under state organization is usually expressed in the following words: 'As a man, I pity him; but as guard, judge, general, governor, czar, or soldier, it is my duty to kill or torture him.

We talk of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But the hypocrisy of our society far surpasses the comparatively innocent hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

All that is unjust, they say; no one forces the people to work for the landowners and manufacturers. That is an affair of free contract. Great properties and fortunes are necessary, because they provide and organize work for the working classes.

Hypocrisy in our day is supported on two sides: by false religion and by false science. And it has reached such proportions that if we were not living in its midst, we could not believe that men could attain such a pitch of self-deception.

Every man of the present day with the Christian principles assimilated involuntarily in his conscience, finds himself in precisely the position of a man asleep who dreams that he is obliged to do something that even in his dream he knows he ought not to do.

Man’s freedom lies in the power of this choice. This freedom within these narrow limits seems so insignificant to men that they do not notice it.

Only let men cease to be hypocrites, and they would at once see that this cruel social organization, which holds them in bondage, and is represented to them as something stable, necessary, and ordained of God, is already tottering and is only propped up by the falsehood of hypocrisy, with which we, and others like us, support it.

The condition of men is the result of their disunion. Their disunion results from their not following the truth that is one, but falsehoods that are many. The sole means of uniting men is their union in the truth.

Still, there are, among the rich, especially among the young, and among women, persons whom I am glad to meet more and more frequently, who, when they are shown in what way and at what cost their pleasures are purchased, do not try to conceal the truth, but hiding their heads in their hands, cry, 'Ah! Don’t speak of that. If it is so, life is impossible.

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.

Doctrine of Non-Resistance to Evil by Force

Tolstoy's central argument is the principle of non-resistance to evil by force, which he asserts is a fundamental tenet of Christ's teachings. He contrasts the Old Testament's endorsement of retributive justice with Christ's command to 'not resist evil.' Tolstoy emphasizes that True Christians must not retaliate against wrongdoers, even in self-defense or through legal means. This radical non-violence extends to all forms of conflict, including war. He argues that adhering to this principle is the only way to eradicate evil from one's heart and society. 'Non-resistance is Salvation; Resistance is Ruin,' he states, underscoring the transformative power of non-resisting love over violent power.

The Role of Public Opinion and Moral Progress

Tolstoy believes that the acceptance of the Christian conception of life, particularly non-resistance, will emancipate humanity from the miseries of a life based on force. He argues that moral progress is achieved not only through individual recognition of the truth but also through the establishment of a public opinion that supports these values. Tolstoy envisions a society where the Christian principles of love, forgiveness, and non-violence are upheld, leading to the eventual end of war and violence. 'The existing order is maintained, not by force, but by public opinion, the action of which is disturbed by the use of force,' he asserts.

Hypocrisy of Modern Society

Tolstoy delves into the pervasive hypocrisy that permeates modern society, particularly among the affluent and powerful. He argues that many individuals, especially those in positions of authority or wealth, engage in actions that are fundamentally at odds with Christian and moral principles. For instance, merchants and manufacturers often exploit workers and engage in dishonest practices, yet they are seen as virtuous if they donate a fraction of their wealth to public institutions. 'It is not theft nor robbery nor murder nor fornication, but Falsehood, the special Falsehood of hypocrisy, which corrupts men, brutalizes them and makes them vindictive,' he critiques.

Embrace Non-Resistance in Daily Life

Apply the principle of non-resistance by choosing not to retaliate or respond with violence in conflicts. Instead, seek peaceful and constructive solutions, embodying the teachings of Christ in personal interactions.

Promote Public Discourse on Non-Violence

Engage in conversations and advocate for the principles of non-resistance and non-violence within your community. Use platforms like social media, public speaking, and writing to spread awareness and influence public opinion.

Support Non-Violent Movements

Actively support and participate in organizations and movements that promote non-violence and peace. This can include volunteering, donating, or simply raising awareness about their efforts and successes.

Question Authority

Critically examine the teachings and practices of religious and governmental authorities. Instead of accepting interpretations that justify the use of force, delve into the original teachings of Christ and consider their True implications.

Live the Teachings

Embrace the principles of non-resistance, forgiveness, and universal love in daily life. This means avoiding participation in systems and actions that involve coercion, violence, or retribution.

Promote Humane Principles

Advocate for and practice humane principles in your interactions with others. Recognize that threats and punishments are ineffective in reducing crime and that moral influence and changes in environment are more effective.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Non-resistance is Salvation; Resistance is Ruin.

The Christian has in no case the right to put to death his neighbor who has done him evil, or to do him injury in return.

The sole escape from it for them lies in their hope that they may be able, by using the authority of the Church, of antiquity, and of their sacred office, to overawe the reader.

The Christian precepts... are the five commandments of the Sermon on the Mount – all negative in character. They show only what at a certain stage of development of humanity men may not do.

The liberty of man does not consist in the power of acting independently of the progress of life and the influences arising from it, but in the capacity for recognizing and acknowledging the truth revealed to him.

The conception of one church only arose when there were two sides divided and disputing, who each called the other side heresy, and recognized their own side only as the infallible church.

The churches as churches, as bodies that assert their own infallibility, are institutions opposed to Christianity.

Authority, that is, Violence, is the Principle that is Destroying the Social Conception of Life.

We regard as unchristian and unlawful not only all wars, whether offensive or defensive, but all preparations for war; every naval ship, every arsenal, every fortification, we regard as unchristian and unlawful." - William Lloyd Garrison

The fifth kind of answer, which is the subtlest, the most often used, and the most effective, consists in avoiding answering, in making believe that this question is one that has long ago been decided perfectly clearly and satisfactorily, and that it is not worth while to talk about it.

The Christian precepts are the five commandments of the Sermon on the Mount – all negative in character. They show only what at a certain stage of development of humanity men may not do.

There are in Europe twenty-eight million men under arms to decide disputes, not by discussion, but by murdering one another. That is the accepted method for deciding disputes among Christian nations." - Wilson

I regard war as a fatal necessity, which appears inevitable for us from its close connection with human nature and the whole constitution of the world. I say that war is necessary and beneficial, since it seems one of the conditions of existence for humanity." - Emile Zola

The slow progress of eighteen centuries has brought the Christian nations again to the necessity of deciding the question they have evaded – the question of the acceptance or non-acceptance of Christ’s teaching, and the question following upon it in social life of resistance or non-resistance to evil by force.

Nothing hinders the emancipation of men from slavery so much as this amazing error. Instead of every man directing his energies to freeing himself, to transforming his conception of life, people seek for an external united method of gaining freedom, and continue to rivet their chains faster and faster.

It will come when a Christian public opinion has arisen, so definite and easily comprehensible as to reach the whole of the inert mass, which is not able to attain truth by its own intuition, and therefore is always under the sway of public opinion.

The best of our young people, at the age when they are still uncorrupted by life and are choosing a career, prefer the calling of doctor, engineer, teacher, artist, writer, or even that of simple farmer living on his own labor, to legal, administrative, clerical, and military positions in the pay of government, or to an idle existence living on their incomes.

The higher and the more profitable a man’s position, the more unstable it becomes, and the more terrible and dangerous a fall from it for him, the more firmly the man believes in the existing order, and therefore with the more ease of conscience can such a man perpetrate cruel and wicked acts, as though they were not in his own interest, but for the maintenance of that order.

And therefore the chief efforts of the man who wishes to serve society and improve the condition of humanity ought, according to this doctrine, to be directed not to the elucidation and propagation of truth, but to the improvement of the external political, social, and above all economic conditions.

All the material improvements that religious and scientific men can dream of may be accomplished; all men may accept Christianity, and all the reforms desired by the Bellamys may be brought about with every possible addition and improvement, but if the hypocrisy that rules nowadays still exists, if men do not profess the truth they know, but continue to feign belief in what they do not believe and veneration for what they do not respect, their condition will remain the same, or even grow worse and worse.

The Christian religion seems to exclude the possibility of life only when men mistake the pointing to an ideal as the laying down of a rule. It is only then that the principles presented in Christ’s teaching appear to be destructive of life. These principles, on the contrary, are the only ones that make true life possible.

All the congresses of both hemispheres may vote against war, and against dueling too, but above all arbitrations, conventions, and legislations there will always be the personal honor of individual men, which has always demanded dueling, and the interests of nations, which will always demand war." - Camille Doucet

The Christian will not dispute with anyone, nor attack anyone, nor use violence against anyone. On the contrary, he will bear violence without opposing it. But by this very attitude to violence, he will not only himself be free, but will free the whole world from all external power.

The spirit of God, of which we are aware within us, is not something apart from ourselves. It is our very essence and the source of our higher aspirations.

The recognition of the spirit of God in one's self and in others is not just a matter of faith or belief, but of actual, daily experience and action.

Every man carries in himself the kingdom of God, and when he realizes this, he is saved from the darkness of ignorance and the slavery of sin.

The true life is the realization of the higher self in the union with the spirit of God which dwells in every man.

True life is the realization of the I in the sonship to God and the brotherhood of mankind; and this life is effected by the recognition of the spirit of God, which is in every man and in the whole of mankind.

The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me?

The acknowledgment of the spirit of God in the heart of man and its realization in life is the only true faith.

The kingdom of God is within you.

Christ’s teaching, which came to be known to men, not by means of violence and the sword, but by means of non-resistance to evil, gentleness, meekness, and peacefulness, can only be diffused through the world by the example of peace, harmony, and love among its followers.

A man cannot get rid of the responsibility for his own actions.

Christians do not need government, and therefore they cannot either obey it in what is contrary to Christ’s teaching nor, still less, take part in it.

The Christian view of life has exerted an influence on the Jewish and heathen, and the heathen and Jewish view of life has, too, exerted an influence on the Christian.

The longer mankind lived, the clearer and clearer became the meaning of Christianity, as must always be the case with every theory of life.

A church is a body of men who claim for themselves that they are in complete and sole possession of the truth.

Heresy is the opinion of the men who do not admit the infallibility of the Church’s truth.

The churches as churches are not, as many people suppose, institutions that have Christian principles for their basis, even though they may have strayed a little away from the straight path. The churches as churches, as bodies that assert their own infallibility, are institutions opposed to Christianity.

The man who believes in a God, in a Christ coming again in glory to judge and to punish the living and the dead, cannot believe in the Christ who told us to turn the left cheek, do not judge, forgive those that wrong us, and love our enemies.

The teaching of every Church, with its redemption and sacraments, excludes the teaching of Christ, most of all the teaching of the Orthodox Church with its idolatrous observances.

The inconsistency of all church forms of religion with the teaching of Christ is, of course, the reason why special efforts are necessary to conceal this inconsistency from people.

These three views of life are as follows: first, embracing the individual, or the animal view of life; second, embracing the society, or the pagan view of life; third, embracing the whole world, or the divine view of life.

The whole historic existence of mankind is nothing else than the gradual transition from the personal, animal conception of life to the social conception of life, and from the social conception of life to the divine conception of life.

Christianity recognizes love of self, of family, of nation, and of humanity, and not only of humanity, but also of everything living, everything existing; it recognizes the necessity of an infinite extension of the sphere of love.

Life according to Christ’s teaching consists of nothing but this setting free of the Son of God, existing in every man, from the animal, and in bringing him closer to the Father.

Every condition, according to this doctrine, is only a particular stage, of no consequence in itself, on the way toward unattainable perfection, and therefore in itself it does not imply a greater or lesser degree of life.

The fulfillment of Christ’s teaching consists in moving away from self toward God. It is obvious that there cannot be definite laws and rules for this fulfillment of the teaching.

The Christian doctrine to love God and serve him, and only as a result of that love to love and serve one’s neighbor, seems to scientific men obscure, mystic, and arbitrary.

The Christian doctrine shows man that the essence of his soul is love – that his happiness depends not on loving this or that object, but on loving the principle of the whole – God, whom he recognizes within himself as love, and therefore he loves all things and all men.

The Christian doctrine brings a man to the elementary consciousness of self, only not of the animal self, but of the divine self, the divine spark, the self as the Son of God, as much God as the Father himself, though confined in an animal husk.

Humanity can no more go backward in its development than the individual man. Men have outlived the social, family, and state conceptions of life. Now they must go forward and assimilate the next and higher conception of life, which is what is now taking place.

The whole life of the upper classes is a constant inconsistency. The more delicate a man’s conscience is, the more painful this contradiction is to him.

All men of the modern world exist in a state of continual and flagrant antagonism between their conscience and their way of life.

The division of men into two castes and the use of force in government and war are opposed to every moral principle professed by our modern society.

All depends, therefore, on the strength of the consciousness of Christian truth on the part of each individual man.

The basis of authority is bodily violence. The possibility of applying bodily violence to people is provided above all by an organization of armed men, trained to act in unison in submission to one will.

The violence of internal feud crushed by authority reappears in authority itself, which falls into the hands of men who, like the rest, are frequently or always ready to sacrifice the public welfare to their personal interest.

The oppression of the oppressed always goes on growing up to the furthest limit, beyond which it cannot go without killing the goose with the golden eggs.

In ratio to the duration and increasing strength of authority its advantages for its subjects disappear and its disadvantages increase.

The power of the state, far from being a security against the attacks of our neighbors, exposes us, on the contrary, to much greater danger of such attacks.

The question will be finally decided beyond appeal by the religious consciousness or conscience of every man who is forced, whether he will or no, through universal conscription, to face the question whether the state is to continue to exist or not.

Christianity is a new and higher conception of life. A new conception of life cannot be imposed on men; it can only be freely assimilated.

The Christian religion is not a legal system that, being imposed by violence, may transform men’s lives. Christianity is a new and higher conception of life.

The corruption of Christianity and its acceptance in its corrupt form by the majority of men was as necessary as it is that the seed should remain hidden for a certain time in the earth in order to germinate.

A Christian cannot fail to be free, because the attainment of the aim he sets before himself cannot be prevented or even hindered by anyone or anything.

The Christian is independent of human authority, because he acknowledges God’s authority alone. His law, revealed by Christ, he recognizes in himself, and voluntarily obeys it.

Until every individual man makes the Christian conception of life his own, and begins to live in accordance with it, there can be no solution of the problem of human life, and no establishment of a new form of life.

Every man of the present day is under the necessity of taking part in the cruelties of pagan life, or of refusing all participation in them.

The freedom of all men will be brought about only through the freedom of individual persons becomes more and more clear as time goes on.

The time will come and is inevitably coming when all institutions based on force will disappear through their uselessness, stupidity, and even inconvenience becoming obvious to all.

The organization of our society rests, not as people interested in maintaining the present order of things like to imagine, on certain principles of jurisprudence, but on simple brute force, on the murder and torture of men.

All the advantages the rich have over the poor are based on nothing but flogging, imprisonment, and murder.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Non-resistance is Salvation; Resistance is Ruin.

The Christian has in no case the right to put to death his neighbor who has done him evil, or to do him injury in return.

The sole escape from it for them lies in their hope that they may be able, by using the authority of the Church, of antiquity, and of their sacred office, to overawe the reader.

The Christian precepts... are the five commandments of the Sermon on the Mount – all negative in character. They show only what at a certain stage of development of humanity men may not do.

The liberty of man does not consist in the power of acting independently of the progress of life and the influences arising from it, but in the capacity for recognizing and acknowledging the truth revealed to him.

The conception of one church only arose when there were two sides divided and disputing, who each called the other side heresy, and recognized their own side only as the infallible church.

The churches as churches, as bodies that assert their own infallibility, are institutions opposed to Christianity.

Authority, that is, Violence, is the Principle that is Destroying the Social Conception of Life.

The only way to be saved from the slavery of sin and from the suffering it involves is through the recognition of the truth revealed to men by Christ; and this truth is the brotherhood of all men, consequent on the sonship of all men to God.