"In front of some thoughts, you remain in doubt, especially when looking at human sin, so you ask yourself: Should we win with force, or with calm love?
Always decide like this: I will win with calm love," advises the great writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and explains why this is the best decision:
"If you decide like this once and for all, you will be able to conquer the whole world. Calm love is a great force, the strongest of all, there is no equal to it in the world! Every day and hour, every moment, monitor yourself, so that your appearance is slightly beautiful.
There, you passed by a small child, you passed angry, with an ugly word, with an offended soul; and you may not have even noticed the child, but he saw you, or your image, ugly and evil, may have remained in his weak and unprotected heart. You don't know that, however, maybe you already threw a bad seed into his soul, and that seed might grow, all because you didn't restrain yourself in front of the child, because you didn't cultivate careful and active love in yourself.
Brothers, do not be afraid of human sins, love man even in his sin, because when someone loves a sinful man, that is already an image of Divine love and is the pinnacle of love on earth. Love all creation of God and the whole and every bit. You love every leaf, every ray of God. Love animals, love plants, love every thing. If you love every thing - you will also understand the secret of God in things.
And if you understand it once, you will tirelessly start to know it more and more, every day. And you will, finally, love the whole world with a universal love.
You love animals: God gave them the germ of thought and quiet joy. Do not disturb and disturb them, do not torture them, do not take away their joy, do not oppose the thought of God. Man, do not exalt yourself, do not think that you are better than animals: they are sinless, and you, with your majesty, you only fertilize the earth with your appearance, on it you leave your festering mark behind you - and that, alas, almost every, every between us!
You love children especially, because they are sinless like angels and live to cheer us up and make us happy; they live for the sake of cleansing our hearts, as a guide for us. "Woe to the one who offends a child," the writer concluded.
Bonus video:
