Leo Tolstoy

“ The strength of the Government lies in the people's ignorance, and the Government knows this, and will therefore always oppose true enlightenment. It is time we realized at fact. And it is most undesirable to let the Government, while it is spreading darkness, pretend to be busy with the enlightenment of the people. It is doing this now by means of all sorts of pseudo-educational establishments which it controls: schools, high-schools, universities, academies, and all kinds of committees and congresses. ”

“ It is strange to see good, wise people spending their strength in a struggle against struggle on the basis of Government, but carrying on that whatever laws the Government itself likes to make. This is how the matter appears to me: There are people (we ourselves are such) who realize that our Government is very bad, and who struggle against it. ”

“ And to this nucleus the ever- wavering crowd of average people would at once gravitate, and public opinion-the only power which subdues Governments-would become evident, demanding freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, justice and humanity. ”

“ Only because there were straight men-truthful and courageous, who made no concessions that infringed their dignity as men have all those beneficent revolutions been accomplished of which mankind now has the advantage- from the abolition of torture and slavery up to liberty of speech and of conscience. Nor can this be otherwise, for what is demanded by conscience (the highest forefeeling man possesses of the truth to which he can attain) is always and in all respects the thing most fruitful and most necessary. for humanity at the given time. ”

“ If the Government were made up entirely of that coarse element - the men of violence, self-seekers, and flatterers - who form its core, it could not continue to exist. The fact that honest and enlightened people are found participating in the affairs of the Government gives Government whatever moral prestige it possesses.
That is one evil resulting from the activity of Liberals who participate in the affairs of Government, or who come to terms with it. ”

“ Only a man who lives according to his conscience can exert influence on people, and only activity that accords with one's conscience can be useful.
But I must make my meaning quite plain. To say that the most effectual means of achieving the ends towards which Revolutionists and Liberals are striving is by activity in accord with their consciences, does not mean that people can begin to live conscientiously in order to achieve those ends. To begin to live conscientiously on purpose to achieve external ends is impossible. ”

“ To live according to one's conscience is possible only as a result of firm and clear religious convictions; the beneficent result of these on our external life will inevitably follow. Therefore the gist of what I wished to say to you is this : That it is unprofitable for good, sincere people to spend their powers of mind and soul on gaining small practical ends - for instance, in the various struggles of nationalities, or parties or in Liberal wire-pulling- while they have not reached a clear and firm religious perception, that is, a consciousness of the meaning and purpose of life. ”

“ The young man who succeeded the late Tsar, having no understanding of life, was assured by the men in power, to whom it was profitable to say so, that the best way to rule a hundred million people is to do as his father did - that is, not to ask advice from anyone, but to do just what comes into his head, or what the first flatterer about him advises. And, fancying that unlimited autocracy is a sacred life - principle of the Russian people, the young man begins to reign ”

“ It is ineffectual and irrational because Government - holding in its grasp the whole power (the army, the administration, the Church, the schools, and the police) , and framing what are called the laws on the basis of which the Liberals wish to resist it - this Government knows very well what is really dangerous to it, and will never let people who submit to it and act under its guidance do anything that will undermine its authority. ”

“ And I think that all this would not have happened if those enlightened., honest people who are now occupied in Liberal activity on the basis of legality, in Local Governments, in the Committees, in Censor-ruled literature., etc., had not devoted their energies to the task of circumventing the Government and - without abandoning the forms it has itself arranged - of finding ways to make it act so as to harm and injure itself: but, abstaining from taking any part in Government or in any business bound up with Government, had merely claimed their rights as men. ”

“ Or else, becoming enraged, they go over to the revolutionary camp; or they shoot themselves; or take to drink; or they abandon the whole struggle in despair, and, oftenest of all, retire into literary activity, in which - yielding to the demands of the censor, they say only what they are allowed to say, and by that very silence about what is most important convey to the public distorted views, which just suit the Government. But they continue to imagine that they are serving society by the writings which give them means of subsistence. ”

“ You order us to serve in the army : we will not do so, because wholesale murder is as opposed to our conscience as individual murder, and, above all, because to promise to murder whomsoever a commander may tell us to murder is the meanest act a man can commit. ”

“ It is true that there are also better, sincere people in the Liberal camp, whom the Government cannot bribe, and who remain unbought and free from salaries and position. But even these people, having been ensnared in the nets spread by Government, beat their wings in their cages (as you are now doing in your Committee) unable to advance from the spot they are on. ”

“ But good is good, and enlightenment is enlightenment, only when it is quite good and quite enlightened, and not when it is toned down to meet the requirements of Delyfinofs or Dourano's circulars. And I am extremely sorry when I see valuable, disinterested, and self-sacrificing efforts spent unprofitably. ”

“ Another evil of such activity is that to secure opportunities to carry on their work, these highly-enlightened and honest people have to begin to compromise, and so, little by little, come to consider that for a good end one may swerve somewhat from truth in word and deed. For instance, that one may, though not believing in the established Church, take part in its ceremonies; may take oaths; may, when necessary for the success of some affair, present petitions couched in language which is untruthful and derogatory to man's natural dignity ”

“ But not only is this activity irrational and ineffectual, it is also harmful. It is harmful because enlightened, good, and honest people by entering the ranks of the Government give it a moral authority which but for them it would not possess. ”

“ That all enlightened and honest people should try to be as good as they can; and not even good in all respects but only in one, namely, in observing one of the most elementary virtues - to be honest and not to lie, but so to act and speak that your motives should be intelligible to an affectionate seven-year-old boy ”

“ You prohibit the publication of literature that displeases you: you may seize books and punish the. printers, but you cannot prevent our speaking and writing, and we shall continue to do so. You demand an oath of allegiance to the Tsar : we will not accede to what is so stupid, false, and degrading. ”

“ They receive rewards and salaries from it, and, continuing to imagine that they are forwarding Liberal ideas, become the humble servants and supporters of the very order against which they set out to fight. ”

“ And so the new order of things, established by violence would have continually to be supported by violence - i.e., by wrong-doing - and, consequently, it would inevitably, and very quickly, be vitiated, like the order it replaced. ”

“ And in case of failure the violence of the Revolutionists only strengthens the order of things they strive against (as has always been the case., in our Russian experience, from Pougatchef's rebellion to the attempt of March 1) , for it drives the whole crowd of undecided people - who stand wavering between the two parties - into the camp of the conservative and retrograde party. ”