Leo Tolstoy

“ But directing all one's attention, all one's efforts, to show one particular object, as for instance, the life of manual labor, propaganda, or as in this case, strife with this or that deceit, is always a mistake, like that of a man who, during an inundation, instead of directing the water through the chief outlet or repairing the dike which resists the water, should construct dams in his own street, overlooking the fact that the water will come in from other directions. ”

“ When I received your letter I wished to write to you reminding you that in strife, one should be as wise as serpents and as meek as doves: but this is not enough: one should not for a moment forget the essential general aim, and not let oneself be carried away by efforts to attain one particular object. ”

“ It is rue that, at the present time, and especiially amongst us in Russia, the Church and State deceit present the chief obstacle to the establishment of, or even the approach to, the Christian life, but one cannot say that the strife with these deceits represents the chief business of a Christian.
The business of a Christian, by the means of which he attains all his purposes, including the one which at present in russia stands before him, is everywhere always one: to increase one's fire and let it give light to men. ”