Leo Tolstoy

“ The old man laid a penance on me, and I make my living out of it, and glory among men to boot. And so perverted am I already, that I feel weary and sad when the people don't come to me. And when the people do come to me, I am only glad because they laud my saintliness. Not so ought I to live. I am entangled in the meshes of human praise. ”

“ Go into the world and buy back the sins of the robber. If thou dost not redeem them thou wilt have to stand in his place."
And the godson said, " But how, then, am I to redeem his sins?"
And the godfather said, "When thou hast drawn as much sin out of the world as thou hast now put into it, then thou wilt have redeemed both thine own sins and the sins of the robber."
" But how, then, am I to draw evil out of the world ? " asked the godson.
Then said the godfather, " Go right before thee towards the rising of the sun, and thou wilt come to a plain whereon dwell men. ”

“ The block swung still further, and rebounded into the midst of the little bears, striking some on the head and others on the back. The young bears bellowed and leaped out of its way, but the she-bear grew angry, seized the block with both paws above her head, and sent it spinning away from her. The block flew high into the air, whereupon the one-year-old cub rushed to the pitcher, buried his snout into the honey, and began to gobble. The others made for it likewise, but before they could get up to it the block flew back again, struck the one-year-old cub on the head, and killed him. ”

“ Water these embers, just as thou didst teach the old woman. Water it just as thou didst teach the herdsmen, and water it as thou didst teach the coopers. When all three shoot up, and three apple- trees grow out of the charred stumps, then thou wilt understand how to destroy evil in men ; then thou wilt be able to redeem sins."
Thus spake the old man, and went back into his cell. The godson thought and thought, but he could not understand what the old man said to him. ”

“ A great sinner," replied the godson. " I go about to make good the sins of other people."
Then an old man came out of the cell, and said, " What then are these sins of other people that are laid upon thee ? "
So the godson told him all. He told him of his godfather, and of the bear and her cubs, and of the throne in the sealed palace, and of what the god- father had commanded him to do, and of how he had seen the muzhiks in the field treading down the corn, and how the calf came to its mistress of its own accord.
" I have understood," said he, " that evil cannot be destroyed by evil ”

“ Instead of redeeming my former sins, I add new sins to the old. I will go into the forest, to another place, that the people may not find me. I will live alone, so that I may wipe out the old sins, and not saddle myself with new ones."
Thus thought the godson, and he took his little sack of biscuits and his spade, and went away from his cell into the deep ravine, so that he might dig out for himself a little habitation in the dreary place, and hide himself from mankind.
So the godson set out with his little bag and his spade, when lo ! a robber fell upon him. The godson was frightened ”

“ Observe what these people do, and teach them of thine own experience. Then go on further still, and observe what thou seest, and on the fourth day thou wilt come to a wood, and in this wood is a cell, and in this cell lives an old hermit ”

“ "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." ”