Letters about the good and the beautiful - history of creation. From “Letters about the good and the beautiful” by Dmitry Likhachev
The book by D. S. Likhachev is addressed to the younger generation. The author sees his readers first and foremost as his friends. For conversations with them, he chooses the form of letters. This is a collection of wisdom, this is the speech of a benevolent Teacher, whose pedagogical tact and ability to speak with students is one of his main talents.
“Letters about the Good and the Beautiful” is a book about the Motherland, patriotism, the greatest spiritual values of humanity, the beauty of the world around us and the aesthetic education of youth. The book immediately gained wide popularity and was translated into many languages. In the preface to the publication in Japanese, D.S. Likhachev wrote: “In my book... I try to explain with the simplest arguments that following the path of goodness is the most acceptable and only path for a person. It is tested, it is true, it is useful - both to the individual and to society as a whole. In my letters, I do not try to explain what goodness is and why a kind person is internally beautiful, lives in harmony with himself, with society and nature. I strive for something else - for specific examples, based on the properties of general human nature.”
From “LETTERS ABOUT THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL”
For my conversations with the reader, I chose the form of letters. This is, of course, a conditional form. I imagine the readers of my letters as friends. Letters to friends allow me to write simply.”
From the preface “Letter to Young Readers”
“If a person has a great goal, then it should manifest itself in everything - in the most seemingly insignificant. You must be honest in the unnoticed and accidental: only then will you be honest in fulfilling your great duty. A great goal embraces the whole person, is reflected in his every action, and one cannot think that a good goal can be achieved through bad means.”
From the first letter “Big in small”
“Take care of your youth until you are very old. Appreciate all the good things you acquired in your youth, do not waste the riches of your youth. Nothing acquired in youth passes without a trace. Habits developed in youth last a lifetime. Skills in work - too. Get used to work - and work will always bring joy. And how important this is for human happiness! There is no one more unhappy than a lazy person who always avoids work and effort...
Both in youth and in old age. Good youth skills will make life easier, bad ones will complicate it and make it difficult.”
From the second letter “Youth is all life”
“What is the greatest goal of life? I think: increase goodness in those around us. And goodness is, first of all, the happiness of all people. It consists of many things, and every time life presents a person with a task that is important to be able to solve. You can do good to a person in small things, you can think about big things, but small things and big things cannot be separated. Much, as I said, begins with little things, originates in childhood and in those close to us.”
From the letter of the third “The Biggest”
“A person should always think about what is most important for himself and for others, throwing off all empty worries.”
From letter four “The greatest value is life”
“You can define the purpose of your existence in different ways, but there must be a purpose - otherwise there will be no life, but vegetation.
Every person should have one rule in life, in his goal of life, in his principles of life, in his behavior: he must live his life with dignity, so that he will not be ashamed to remember. For the sake of the dignity of life, one must be able to give up small pleasures and considerable ones too... Being able to apologize and admit a mistake to others is better than fussing and lying.”
From letter five “What is the meaning of life”
“The main task in life must necessarily be a task broader than just a personal one; it should not be limited only to one’s own successes and failures. It should be dictated by kindness towards people, love for family, for your city, for your people, for your country, for the whole universe.”
From letter six “Goal and self-esteem”
“Floors of care. Care strengthens relationships between people. It binds families together, binds friendships, binds together fellow villagers, residents of one city, one country.”
From letter seven “What unites people”
“Don't be funny. Not being funny is not only the ability to behave, but also a sign of intelligence.”
From letter eight “Be cheerful, but not be funny”
« Friendliness and kindness make a person not only physically healthy, but also beautiful. Yes, exactly beautiful.”
From letter twelve “A person must be intelligent”
“You don’t have to memorize hundreds of rules, but remember one thing - the need to respect others. And if you have this and a little more resourcefulness, then manners will come to you on their own, or, better said, the memory of the rules of good behavior, the desire and ability to apply them will come.”
From letter thirteen “On education”
“...the burning danger of envy. A terrible feeling that primarily affects those who envy. If you're jealous, it means you haven't found yourself».
From letter fifteen “About envy”
“A person shows his good manners best when he leads a discussion, argues, defending his beliefs.”
From letter seventeen “Be able to argue with dignity”
“Flaunting with rudeness in language, as well as flaunting with rudeness in manners, sloppiness in clothing, is a very common phenomenon, and it mainly indicates a person’s psychological insecurity, his weakness, and not at all his strength. The speaker tries to suppress in himself with a rude joke, harsh expression, irony, cynicism the feeling of fear, apprehension, sometimes just apprehension.
A truly strong and healthy, balanced person will not speak loudly unnecessarily, will not swear or use slang words. After all, he is sure that his word is already weighty.”
From letter nineteen “How to speak?”
“A joke is important in difficult situations: it restores mental balance. Suvorov joked to encourage his soldiers.
The ease of language can be false: for example, “glimpness of the pen.” A “glib pen” is not necessarily good language. We must cultivate a taste for language. Bad taste ruins even talented authors.”
From letter twenty-one “How to write?”
“Speed reading creates the appearance of knowledge. It can be allowed only in certain types of professions, being careful not to create the habit of speed reading; it leads to attention disorders.
“You don’t need to make your library too big, you don’t need to fill it with “one-time reading” books.”
From letter twenty-three “On personal libraries”
“You should only need my letters “Letters about the good and the beautiful” to get started. And then live kindly, without thinking about the “rules” contained in the letters. The “rules” are just for the beginning of the journey. Strive to walk in the paths of goodness as simply and unconsciously as you walk in general. The paths and roads of our beautiful garden, which is called the surrounding world, are so easy, so comfortable, the meetings on them are so interesting, if only the “initial data” you have chosen correctly.”
From letter twenty-five “At the behest of conscience”
“We will know history - the history of everything that surrounds us on a large and small scale. This is the fourth, very important dimension of the world.
Please note: children and young people especially love customs and traditional celebrations. For they master the world, master it in tradition, in history. Let us more actively defend everything that makes our lives meaningful, rich and spiritual.”
From letter twenty-seven “The Fourth Dimension”
“Every people should be judged by the moral peaks and ideals by which it lives. Benevolence towards any people, even the smallest ones! This position is the most faithful, the most noble. Generally speaking, any ill will always erects a wall of misunderstanding.
Benevolence, on the contrary, opens the path to correct knowledge.”
From the thirtieth letter “Moral peaks and attitudes towards them”
“The graves were made with love. Tombstones embodied gratitude to the deceased and the desire to perpetuate his memory. That’s why they are so diverse, individual and always curious in their own way. Reading forgotten names, sometimes searching for those buried here famous people, their relatives or just acquaintances, visitors to some extent learn the “wisdom of life.” Many cemeteries are poetic in their own way. Therefore, the role of lonely graves or cemeteries in the education of “moral settled life” is very great.”
From letter thirty-one “Circle of Moral Settlement”
“And evil in a person is always associated with a misunderstanding of another person, with a painful feeling of envy, with an even more painful feeling of ill will, with dissatisfaction with one’s position in society, with eternal anger that eats up a person, disappointment in life. An evil person punishes himself with his malice. He plunges himself into darkness first of all.
Of course, they don’t argue about tastes, but they develop taste - in themselves and in others. One can strive to understand what others understand, especially if there are many others. Many, many cannot simply be deceivers if they claim that they like something, if a painter or composer, poet or sculptor enjoys enormous and even worldwide recognition. However, there are fashions and there are unjustified non-recognition of the new or alien, contamination even with hatred of the “alien,” of the too complex, etc.
Folk art not only teaches, but is also the basis of many modern works of art.”
From letter thirty-two “Understanding Art”
“There is unity of people, nature and culture in the country.”
From letter thirty-seven “Ensembles of art monuments”
“I am writing all this for a reason. The attitude towards the past forms one's own national image. For every person is a bearer of the past and a bearer of national character. Man is part of society and part of its history.”
From letter thirty-eight “Gardens and Parks”
“Memory is overcoming time, overcoming death.
This is the greatest moral significance of memory. “Unmemorable” is, first of all, a person who is ungrateful, irresponsible, and therefore incapable of good, selfless deeds.
Conscience is basically memory, to which is added a moral assessment of what has been done. But if what is accomplished is not retained in memory, then there can be no evaluation. Without memory there is no conscience.
Human culture as a whole not only has memory, but it is memory par excellence. The culture of humanity is the active memory of humanity, actively introduced into modernity.
Memory is the basis of conscience and morality, memory is the basis of culture, the “accumulations” of culture, memory is one of the foundations of poetry - the aesthetic understanding of cultural values. Preserving memory, preserving memory is our moral duty to ourselves and to our descendants. Memory is our wealth."
From the letter of the fortieth “On Memory”
“To love your family, your childhood impressions, your home, your school, your village, your city, your country, your culture and language, the entire globe is necessary, absolutely necessary for the moral settlement of a person. Man is not a steppe plant, tumbleweed, which the autumn wind drives across the steppe.”
From letter forty-one “Memory of Culture”
« In life you need to have your own service - service to some cause. Even if the matter is small, it will become big if you are faithful to it.
In life, the most valuable thing is kindness, and at the same time, kindness is smart and purposeful. Intelligent kindness is the most valuable thing in a person, the most attractive to him and, ultimately, the most faithful on the path to personal happiness. Happiness is achieved by those who strive to make others happy and are able to forget about their interests and themselves, at least for a while. This is the “unchangeable ruble”.
Knowing this, remembering this always and following the paths of kindness is very, very important. Believe me!".
From letter forty-six “In the ways of kindness”
DEAR FRIENDS!
Before you is the book “Letters about the good and the beautiful” by one of the outstanding scientists of our time, chairman of the Soviet Culture Foundation, academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. These “letters” are not addressed to anyone in particular, but to all readers. First of all, young people who still have to learn life and walk its difficult paths.
The fact that the author of the letters, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, is a man whose name is known on all continents, an outstanding expert on domestic and world culture, elected an honorary member of many foreign academies, and who holds other honorary titles from major scientific institutions, makes this book especially valuable.
And the advice that you can get from reading this book concerns almost all aspects of life.
This is a collection of wisdom, this is the speech of a benevolent Teacher, whose pedagogical tact and ability to speak with students is one of his main talents.
The book was first published by our publishing house in 1985 and has already become a bibliographic rarity - this is evidenced by the numerous letters we receive from readers.
This book is being translated into different countries, translated into many languages.
This is what D.S. Likhachev himself writes in the preface to the Japanese edition, in which he explains why this book was written:
“In my deep conviction, goodness and beauty are the same for all peoples. United - in two senses: truth and beauty are eternal companions, they are united among themselves and the same for all peoples.
Lies are evil for everyone. Sincerity and truthfulness, honesty and selflessness are always good.
In my book “Letters about the Good and the Beautiful,” intended for children, I try to explain with the simplest arguments that following the path of goodness is the most acceptable and only path for a person. It is tested, it is faithful, it is useful - both to the individual and to society as a whole.
In my letters, I do not try to explain what goodness is and why a good person is internally beautiful, lives in harmony with himself, with society and with nature. There can be many explanations, definitions and approaches. I strive for something else - for specific examples, based on the properties of general human nature.
I do not subordinate the concept of goodness and the accompanying concept of human beauty to any worldview. My examples are not ideological, because I want to explain them to children even before they begin to subordinate themselves to any specific ideological principles.
Children love traditions very much, they are proud of their home, their family, as well as their village. But they readily understand not only their own, but also other people’s traditions, other people’s worldviews, and they grasp what all people have in common.
I will be happy if the reader, no matter what age he belongs to (it happens that adults also read children's books), finds in my letters at least part of what he can agree with.
Agreement between people different peoples“This is the most precious and now most necessary thing for humanity.”
LETTERS TO YOUNG READERS
For my conversations with the reader, I chose the form of letters. This is, of course, a conditional form. I imagine the readers of my letters as friends. Letters to friends allow me to write simply.
Why did I arrange my letters this way? First, in my letters, I write about the purpose and meaning of life, about the beauty of behavior, and then I move on to the beauty of the world around us, to the beauty that is revealed to us in works of art. I do this because in order to perceive the beauty of the environment, a person himself must be mentally beautiful, deep, and stand on the right positions in life. Try holding binoculars in shaking hands - you won’t see anything.
Letter one
BIG IN SMALL
In the material world you cannot fit the big into the small. In the sphere of spiritual values, it is not so: much more can fit into the small, but if you try to fit the small into the big, then the big will simply cease to exist.
If a person has a great goal, then it should manifest itself in everything - in the most seemingly insignificant. You must be honest in the unnoticed and accidental: only then will you be honest in fulfilling your great duty. A great goal embraces the whole person, is reflected in his every action, and one cannot think that a good goal can be achieved through bad means.
The saying “the end justifies the means” is destructive and immoral. Dostoevsky showed this well in Crime and Punishment. The main character of this work, Rodion Raskolnikov, thought that by killing the disgusting old moneylender, he would get money with which he could then achieve great goals and benefit humanity, but he suffers an internal collapse. The goal is distant and unrealistic, but the crime is real; it is terrible and cannot be justified by anything. You cannot strive for a high goal with low means. You must be equally honest in both big and small things.
General rule: to preserve the big in the small is necessary, in particular, in science. Scientific truth is most valuable and must be followed in every detail. scientific research and in the life of a scientist. If one strives in science for “small” goals - for proof by “force”, contrary to the facts, for the “interestingness” of conclusions, for their effectiveness, or for any forms of self-promotion, then the scientist inevitably fails. Maybe not right away, but eventually! When exaggerations of the obtained research results or even minor manipulations of facts begin and scientific truth is pushed into the background, science ceases to exist, and the scientist himself sooner or later ceases to be a scientist.
One must resolutely observe the great in everything. Then everything is easy and simple.
Letter two
YOUTH IS YOUR WHOLE LIFE
Therefore, take care of your youth until old age. Appreciate all the good things you acquired in your youth, do not waste the riches of your youth. Nothing acquired in youth passes without a trace. Habits developed in youth last a lifetime. Work skills too. Get used to work - and work will always bring joy. And how important this is for human happiness! There is no one more unhappy than a lazy person who always avoids work and effort...
Both in youth and in old age. Good youth skills will make life easier, bad ones will complicate it and make it difficult.
And further. There is a Russian proverb: “Take care of your honor from a young age.” All the actions committed in youth remain in memory. The good ones will make you happy, the bad ones will not let you sleep!
Letter three
THE BIGGEST
What is the biggest goal in life? I think: increase the goodness in those around us. And goodness is, first of all, the happiness of all people. It consists of many things, and every time life presents a person with a task that is important to be able to solve. You can do good to a person in small things, you can think about big things, but small things and big things cannot be separated. Much, as I have already said, begins with little things, originates in childhood and in loved ones.
A child loves his mother and his father, his brothers and sisters, his family, his home. Gradually expanding, his affections extend to school, village, city, and his entire country. And this is already a very big and deep feeling, although one cannot stop there and one must love the person in a person.
You have to be a patriot, not a nationalist. There is no need to hate every other family because you love yours. There is no need to hate other nations because you are a patriot. There is a deep difference between patriotism and nationalism. In the first - love for your country, in the second - hatred of all others.
The book by the outstanding scientist of the 20th century, academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, is addressed to young readers. These are devoid of moralism and pathos, issued in the form of short letters, reflections of a kind and wise man about the need for self-development, the formation of the correct value system, getting rid of greed, envy, resentment, hatred and about cultivating love for people, understanding, sympathy, courage and the ability to defend one’s point of view. “Letters...” of Academician Likhachev will be useful to everyone who wants to learn how to make the right choice in the most difficult situations, get along with people, be in harmony with themselves and the world around them, and get great pleasure from life.
* * *
The given introductory fragment of the book Letters about the good and the beautiful (D. S. Likhachev, 1985) provided by our book partner - the company liters.
The text is reproduced from the edition: Likhachev D.S. Letters about the good and the beautiful / Comp. and general ed. G. A. Dubrovskoy. – 3rd ed. – M.: Det. Lit., 1989. – 238 pp.: photoil.
Project Manager O. Ravdanis
Proofreaders M. Smirnova, E. Chudinova
Computer layout M. Potashkin
Layout and cover design Yu. Buga
© Likhachev D.S., heirs, 1985
© Ilyina A. A., illustrations, 2017
© Publishing, design. Alpina Publisher LLC, 2017
All rights reserved. The work is intended exclusively for private use. No part of the electronic copy of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for public or shared use without written permission copyright owner. For violation of copyright, the law provides for payment of compensation to the copyright holder in the amount of up to 5 million rubles (Article 49 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), as well as criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to 6 years (Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Dear friends!
Before you is the book “Letters about the good and the beautiful” by one of the outstanding scientists of our time, chairman of the Soviet Culture Foundation, academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. These “letters” are not addressed to anyone in particular, but to all readers. First of all, young people who still have to learn life and walk its difficult paths.
The fact that the author of the letters, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, is a man whose name is known on all continents, an outstanding expert on domestic and world culture, elected an honorary member of many foreign academies, and who holds other honorary titles from major scientific institutions, makes this book especially valuable.
And the advice that you can get from reading this book concerns almost all aspects of life.
This is a collection of wisdom, this is the speech of a benevolent Teacher, whose pedagogical tact and ability to speak with students is one of his main talents.
The book was first published in 1985 and has already become a bibliographic rarity.
This book is being translated in different countries and into many languages.
This is what D.S. himself writes. Likhachev in the preface to the Japanese edition, in which he explains why this book was written:
“In my deep conviction, goodness and beauty are the same for all peoples. United - in two senses: truth and beauty are eternal companions, they are united among themselves and the same for all peoples.
Lies are evil for everyone. Sincerity and truthfulness, honesty and selflessness are always good.
In my book “Letters about the Good and the Beautiful,” intended for children, I try to explain with the simplest arguments that following the path of goodness is the most acceptable and only path for a person. It is tested, it is true, it is useful - both to the individual and to society as a whole.
In my letters, I do not try to explain what goodness is and why a good person is internally beautiful, lives in harmony with himself, with society and with nature. There can be many explanations, definitions and approaches. I strive for something else - for specific examples, based on the properties of general human nature.
I do not subordinate the concept of goodness and the accompanying concept of human beauty to any worldview. My examples are not ideological, because I want to explain them to children even before they begin to subordinate themselves to any specific ideological principles.
Children love traditions very much, they are proud of their home, their family, as well as their village. But they readily understand not only their own, but also other people’s traditions, other people’s worldviews, and they grasp what all people have in common.
I will be happy if the reader, no matter what age he belongs to (it happens that adults also read children's books), finds in my letters at least part of what he can agree with.
Harmony between people, different nations, is the most precious thing and now the most necessary for humanity.”
The book “Letters about the Good and the Beautiful” by one of the outstanding scientists of our time, chairman of the Soviet Culture Foundation, academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is addressed not to anyone in particular, but to all readers. First of all, young people who still have to learn life and walk its difficult paths.
The fact that the author of the letters, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, is a man whose name is known on all continents, an outstanding expert on domestic and world culture, elected an honorary member of many foreign academies, and who holds other honorary titles from major scientific institutions, makes this book especially valuable.
And the advice that you can get from reading this book concerns almost all aspects of life.
This is a collection of wisdom, this is the speech of a benevolent Teacher, whose pedagogical tact and ability to speak with students is one of his main talents.
The book was first published in 1985 and has already become a bibliographic rarity.
This book is being translated in different countries and into many languages.
This is what D.S. Likhachev himself writes in the preface to the Japanese edition, in which he explains why this book was written:
“In my deep conviction, goodness and beauty are the same for all peoples. United - in two senses: truth and beauty are eternal companions, they are united among themselves and the same for all peoples.
Lies are evil for everyone. Sincerity and truthfulness, honesty and selflessness are always good.
In my book “Letters about the Good and the Beautiful,” intended for children, I try to explain with the simplest arguments that following the path of goodness is the most acceptable and only path for a person. It is tested, it is true, it is useful - both to the individual and to society as a whole.
In my letters, I do not try to explain what goodness is and why a good person is internally beautiful, lives in harmony with himself, with society and with nature. There can be many explanations, definitions and approaches. I strive for something else - for specific examples, based on the properties of general human nature.
I do not subordinate the concept of goodness and the accompanying concept of human beauty to any worldview. My examples are not ideological, because I want to explain them to children even before they begin to subordinate themselves to any specific ideological principles.
Children love traditions very much, they are proud of their home, their family, as well as their village. But they readily understand not only their own, but also other people’s traditions, other people’s worldviews, and they grasp what all people have in common.
I will be happy if the reader, no matter what age he belongs to (it happens that adults also read children's books), finds in my letters at least part of what he can agree with.
Harmony between people, different nations, is the most precious thing and now the most necessary for humanity.”
LETTERS TO YOUNG READERS
For my conversations with the reader, I chose the form of letters. This is, of course, a conditional form. I imagine the readers of my letters as friends. Letters to friends allow me to write simply.
Why did I arrange my letters this way? First, in my letters, I write about the purpose and meaning of life, about the beauty of behavior, and then I move on to the beauty of the world around us, to the beauty that is revealed to us in works of art. I do this because in order to perceive the beauty of the environment, a person himself must be mentally beautiful, deep, and stand on the right positions in life. Try holding binoculars in shaking hands - you won't see anything.
Letter one
BIG IN SMALL
In the material world you cannot fit the big into the small. In the sphere of spiritual values, it is not so: much more can fit into the small, but if you try to fit the small into the big, then the big will simply cease to exist. If a person has a great goal, then it should manifest itself in everything - in the most seemingly insignificant. You must be honest in the unnoticed and accidental: only then will you be honest in fulfilling your great duty. A great goal embraces the whole person, is reflected in his every action, and one cannot think that a good goal can be achieved through bad means.
The saying “the end justifies the means” is destructive and immoral. Dostoevsky showed this well in Crime and Punishment. The main character of this work, Rodion Raskolnikov, thought that by killing the disgusting old moneylender, he would get money with which he could then achieve great goals and benefit humanity, but he suffers an internal collapse. The goal is distant and unrealistic, but the crime is real; it is terrible and cannot be justified by anything. You cannot strive for a high goal with low means. You must be equally honest in both big and small things.
The general rule: to preserve the big in the small is necessary, in particular, in science. Scientific truth is the most valuable, and it must be followed in all details of scientific research and in the life of a scientist. If we strive in science for “small” goals - for proof by “force”, contrary to the facts, for the “interestingness” of conclusions, for their effectiveness, or for any forms of self-promotion, then the scientist inevitably fails. Maybe not right away, but eventually! When exaggerations of the obtained research results or even minor manipulations of facts begin and scientific truth is pushed into the background, science ceases to exist, and the scientist himself sooner or later ceases to be a scientist.
One must resolutely observe the great in everything. Then everything is easy and simple.
Letter two
YOUTH IS YOUR WHOLE LIFE
Therefore, take care of your youth until old age. Appreciate all the good things you acquired in your youth, do not waste the riches of your youth. Nothing acquired in youth passes without a trace. Habits developed in youth last a lifetime. Skills in work - too. Get used to work - and work will always bring joy. And how important this is for human happiness! There is no one more unhappy than a lazy person who always avoids work and effort...
Both in youth and in old age. Good youth skills will make life easier, bad ones will complicate it and make it difficult.
And further. There is a Russian proverb: “Take care of your honor from a young age.” All the actions committed in youth remain in memory. The good ones will make you happy, the bad ones will not let you sleep!
Letter three
THE BIGGEST
What is the biggest goal in life? I think: increase the goodness in those around us. And goodness is, first of all, the happiness of all people. It consists of many things, and every time life presents a person with a task that is important to be able to solve. You can do good to a person in small things, you can think about big things, but small things and big things cannot be separated. Much, as I have already said, begins with little things, originates in childhood and in loved ones.
A child loves his mother and his father, his brothers and sisters, his family, his home. Gradually expanding, his affections extend to school, village, city, and his entire country. And this is already a very big and deep feeling, although one cannot stop there and one must love the person in a person.
You have to be a patriot, not a nationalist. There is no need to hate every other family because you love yours. There is no need to hate other nations because you are a patriot. There is a deep difference between patriotism and nationalism. In the first - love for your country, in the second - hatred of all others.
The great goal of good begins small - with the desire for good for your loved ones, but as it expands, it covers an ever wider range of issues.
It's like ripples on the water. But the circles on the water, expanding, are becoming weaker. Love and friendship, growing and spreading to many things, acquire new strength, become higher, and man, their center, becomes wiser.
Love should not be unconscious, it should be smart. This means that it must be combined with the ability to notice shortcomings and deal with shortcomings - both in a loved one and in the people around them. It must be combined with wisdom, with the ability to separate the necessary from the empty and false. She shouldn't be blind. Blind admiration (you can't even call it love) can lead to dire consequences. A mother who admires everything and encourages her child in everything can raise a moral monster. Blind admiration for Germany (“Germany above all” - the words of a chauvinistic German song) led to Nazism, blind admiration for Italy led to fascism.
Wisdom is intelligence combined with kindness. Mind without kindness is cunning. Cunning gradually withers away and will certainly sooner or later turn against the cunning person himself. Therefore, the cunning is forced to hide. Wisdom is open and reliable. She does not deceive others, and above all the wisest person. Wisdom brings the sage a good name and lasting happiness, brings reliable, long-lasting happiness and that calm conscience that is most valuable in old age.
How can I express what is common between my three propositions: “Big in small”, “Youth is always” and “The biggest”? It can be expressed in one word, which can become a motto: “Loyalty.” Loyalty to those great principles that should guide a person in big and small, loyalty to his impeccable youth, to his homeland in wide and in in the narrow sense this concept, loyalty to family, friends, city, country, people. Ultimately, fidelity is fidelity to truth - truth-truth and truth-justice.
Letter Four
THE BIGGEST VALUE IS LIFE
Life is, first of all, breathing. "Soul", "spirit"! And he died - first of all - “stopped breathing.” That's what they thought from time immemorial. “Spirit out!” - it means “died”.
It can be “stuffy” in the house, and “stuffy” in moral life as well. Take a good breath out of all the petty worries, all the bustle of everyday life, get rid of, shake off everything that hinders the movement of thought, that crushes the soul, that does not allow a person to accept life, its values, its beauty.
A person should always think about what is most important for himself and for others, throwing off all empty worries.
We must be open to people, tolerant of people, and look for the best in them first of all. The ability to seek and find the best, simply “good”, “overshadowed beauty” enriches a person spiritually.
To notice beauty in nature, in a village, a city, a street, not to mention in a person, through all the barriers of little things - this means expanding the sphere of life, the sphere of the living space in which a person lives.
I've been looking for this word for a long time - sphere. At first I told myself: “We need to expand the boundaries of life,” but life has no boundaries! Is not land plot, fenced with a fence - borders. Expanding the limits of life is not suitable for expressing my thoughts for the same reason. Expanding the horizons of life is already better, but still something is not right. Maximilian Voloshin has a well-invented word - “okoe”. This is everything that the eye can accommodate, that it can embrace. But even here the limitations of our everyday knowledge interfere. Life cannot be reduced to everyday impressions. We must be able to feel and even notice what is beyond our perception, to have, as it were, a “premonition” of something new that is opening or could be revealed to us. The greatest value in the world is life: someone else’s, one’s own, the life of the animal world and plants, the life of culture, life throughout its entire length - in the past, in the present, and in the future... And life is infinitely deep. We always come across something we haven’t noticed before, something that amazes us with its beauty, unexpected wisdom, and uniqueness.
Letter five
WHAT IS A SENSE OF LIFE
You can define the purpose of your existence in different ways, but there must be a purpose - otherwise there will be no life, but vegetation.
You also need to have principles in life. It’s even good to write them down in a diary, but for the diary to be “real”, it cannot be shown to anyone - write only for yourself.
Every person should have one rule in life, in his goal of life, in his principles of life, in his behavior: he must live his life with dignity, so that he will not be ashamed to remember.
Dignity requires kindness, generosity, the ability not to be a narrow egoist, to be truthful, good friend, finding joy in helping others.
For the sake of the dignity of life, one must be able to give up small pleasures and considerable ones too... Being able to apologize and admit a mistake to others is better than fussing and lying.
When deceiving, a person first of all deceives himself, because he thinks that he has successfully lied, but people understood and, out of delicacy, remained silent.
Letter six
PURPOSE AND SELF-ESTEEM
When a person consciously or intuitively chooses some Goal or life task for himself in life, he at the same time involuntarily gives himself an assessment. By what a person lives for, one can judge his self-esteem - low or high.
If a person sets himself the task of acquiring all the basic material goods, he evaluates himself at the level of these material goods: as the owner of the latest brand of car, as the owner of a luxurious dacha, as part of his furniture set...
If a person lives to bring good to people, to alleviate their suffering from illness, to give people joy, then he evaluates himself at the level of this humanity. He sets himself a goal worthy of a person.
Only a vital goal allows a person to live his life with dignity and get real joy. Yes, joy! Think: if a person sets himself the task of increasing goodness in life, bringing happiness to people, what failures can befall him?
Help the wrong person who should? But how many people don't need help? If you are a doctor, then perhaps you misdiagnosed the patient? This happens to the best doctors. But in total, you still helped more than you didn’t help. No one is immune from mistakes. But the most main mistake, fatal mistake - incorrectly chosen the main task in life. Not promoted - disappointing. I didn’t have time to buy a stamp for my collection - it’s a shame. Someone has better furniture than you or a better car - again a disappointment, and what a disappointment!
When setting the goal of a career or acquisition, a person experiences in total much more sorrows than joys, and risks losing everything. What can a person who rejoices in every good deed lose? It is only important that the good that a person does should be his inner need, come from an intelligent heart, and not just from the head, and should not be a “principle” alone.
Therefore, the main task in life must necessarily be a task that is broader than just personal; it should not be limited only to one’s own successes and failures. It should be dictated by kindness towards people, love for family, for your city, for your people, for your country, for the entire universe.
Does this mean that a person should live like an ascetic, not take care of himself, not acquire anything and not enjoy a simple promotion? Not at all! A person who does not think about himself at all is an abnormal phenomenon and personally unpleasant to me: there is some kind of breakdown in this, some ostentatious exaggeration of his kindness, unselfishness, significance, in this there is some kind of peculiar contempt for other people , the desire to stand out.
Therefore, I am only talking about the main task in life. And this main life task does not need to be emphasized in the eyes of other people. And you need to dress well (this is respect for others), but not necessarily “better than others.” And you need to compile a library for yourself, but not necessarily larger than your neighbor’s. And it’s good to buy a car for yourself and your family - it’s convenient. Just don’t turn the secondary into the primary and don’t the main objective life has exhausted you where it is not necessary. When it is needed is another matter. There we will see who is capable of what.
Letter seven
WHAT UNITES PEOPLE
Floors of care. Caring strengthens relationships between people. It binds families together, binds friendships, binds together fellow villagers, residents of one city, one country.
Trace a person's life.
A person is born, and the first care for him is his mother; gradually (after just a few days) the father’s care for him comes into direct contact with the child (before the birth of the child, there was already care for him, but it was to a certain extent “abstract” - the parents were preparing for the birth of the child, dreaming about him).
The feeling of caring for another appears very early, especially in girls. The girl doesn’t speak yet, but she’s already trying to take care of the doll, nursing it. Boys, very small, love to pick mushrooms and fish. Girls also love to pick berries and mushrooms. And they collect not only for themselves, but for the whole family. They take it home and prepare it for the winter.
Gradually, children become objects of increasingly higher care and themselves begin to show real and broad care - not only about the family, but also about the school where parental care placed them, about their village, city and country...
Caring is expanding and becoming more altruistic. Children pay for caring for themselves by caring for their elderly parents, when they can no longer repay the children’s care. And this concern for the elderly, and then for the memory of deceased parents, seems to merge with concern for the historical memory of the family and homeland as a whole.
If care is directed only at oneself, then an egoist grows up.
Caring unites people, strengthens the memory of the past and is aimed entirely at the future. This is not the feeling itself - it is a concrete manifestation of the feeling of love, friendship, patriotism. A person must be caring. A carefree or carefree person is most likely a person who is unkind and does not love anyone.
Morality in highest degree characterized by a feeling of compassion. In compassion there is a consciousness of one’s unity with humanity and the world (not only people, nations, but also with animals, plants, nature, etc.). A feeling of compassion (or something close to it) makes us fight for cultural monuments, for their preservation, for nature, individual landscapes, for respect for memory. In compassion there is a consciousness of one’s unity with other people, with a nation, people, country, universe. That is why the forgotten concept of compassion requires its complete revival and development.
A surprisingly correct thought: “A small step for a person, a big step for humanity.”
Thousands of examples can be given of this: it costs nothing for one person to be kind, but it is incredibly difficult for humanity to become kind. It is impossible to correct humanity, it is easy to correct yourself. Feeding a child, walking an old man across the street, giving up a seat on a tram, working well, being polite and courteous... etc., etc. - all this is easy for a person, but incredibly difficult for everyone at once. That's why you need to start with yourself.
Good cannot be stupid. A good deed is never stupid, because it is selfless and does not pursue the goal of profit and “smart results.” A good deed can be called “stupid” only when it clearly could not achieve the goal or was “false good,” mistakenly kind, that is, not kind. I repeat, a truly good deed cannot be stupid, it is beyond evaluation from the point of view of the mind or not the mind. So good and good.
Letter Eight
BE FUN BUT NOT BE FUNNY
They say that content determines form. This is true, but the opposite is also true: the content depends on the form. The famous American psychologist of the beginning of this century, D. James, wrote: “We cry because we are sad, but we are also sad because we cry.” Therefore, let's talk about the form of our behavior, about what should become our habit and what should also become our internal content.
Once upon a time it was considered indecent to show with all your appearance that a misfortune had happened to you, that you were in grief. A person should not have imposed his depressed state on others. It was necessary to maintain dignity even in grief, to be even with everyone, not to become self-absorbed and to remain as friendly and even cheerful as possible. The ability to maintain dignity, not to impose one’s sorrows on others, not to spoil others’ mood, to always be even in dealing with people, to be always friendly and cheerful - this is a great and real art that helps to live in society and society itself.
But how cheerful should you be? Noisy and intrusive fun is tiring for those around you. A young man who is always spitting out witticisms is no longer perceived as behaving with dignity. He becomes a buffoon. And this is the worst thing that can happen to a person in society, and it ultimately means a loss of humor.
Don't be funny.
Not being funny is not only the ability to behave, but also a sign of intelligence.
You can be funny in everything, even in the way you dress. If a man carefully matches his tie to his shirt, or his shirt to his suit, he is ridiculous. Excessive concern for one's appearance is immediately visible. We must take care to dress decently, but this concern for men should not go beyond certain limits. A man who cares excessively about his appearance is unpleasant. A woman is a different matter. Men's clothes should have only a hint of fashion. A perfectly clean shirt, clean shoes and a fresh, but not very bright tie - that's enough. The suit may be old, it should not just be unkempt.
When talking with others, know how to listen, know how to be silent, know how to joke, but rarely and at the right time. Take up as little space as possible. Therefore, at dinner, do not put your elbows on the table, embarrassing your neighbor, but also do not try too hard to be the “life of the party.” Observe moderation in everything, do not be intrusive even with your friendly feelings.
Don't be tormented by your shortcomings if you have them. If you stutter, don't think it's too bad. Stutterers can be excellent speakers, meaning every word they say. The best lecturer at Moscow University, famous for its eloquent professors, historian V. O. Klyuchevsky stuttered. A slight squint can add significance to the face, while lameness can add significance to movements. But if you're shy, don't be afraid of it either. Don't be ashamed of your shyness: Shyness is very cute and not at all funny. She only becomes funny if you try too hard to overcome her and are embarrassed by her. Be simple and forgiving of your shortcomings. Don't suffer from them. There is nothing worse when an “inferiority complex” develops in a person, and with it bitterness, hostility towards other people, and envy. A person loses what is best in him - kindness.
There is no better music than silence, silence in the mountains, silence in the forest. There is no better “music in a person” than modesty and the ability to remain silent, not to come to the forefront. There is nothing more unpleasant and stupid in a person’s appearance and behavior than being important or noisy; There is nothing funnier in a man than excessive care for his suit and hairstyle, calculated movements and a “fountain of witticisms” and anecdotes, especially if they are repeated.
In your behavior, be afraid to be funny and try to be modest and quiet.
Never let yourself go, always be even with people, respect the people who surround you.
Here are some tips, seemingly about minor things - about your behavior, about your appearance, but also about your inner world: do not be afraid of your physical shortcomings. Treat them with dignity and you will look elegant.
I have a girl friend who has a slightly hunchback. Honestly, I never tire of admiring her grace on those rare occasions when I meet her at museum openings (everyone meets there - that’s why they are cultural holidays).
And one more thing, and perhaps the most important: be truthful. He who seeks to deceive others first of all deceives himself. He naively thinks that they believed him, and those around him were actually just polite. But a lie always reveals itself, a lie is always “felt”, and you not only become disgusting, worse - you become ridiculous.
Don't be funny! Truthfulness is beautiful, even if you admit that you deceived before on some occasion, and explain why you did it. This will correct the situation. You will be respected and you will show your intelligence.
Simplicity and “silence” in a person, truthfulness, lack of pretensions in clothing and behavior - this is the most attractive “form” in a person, which also becomes his most elegant “content”.
Letter Nine
WHEN SHOULD YOU BE OFFENDED?
You should only be offended when they want to offend you. If they don’t want to, and the reason for the offense is an accident, then why be offended?
Without getting angry, clear up the misunderstanding - that's all.
Well, what if they want to offend? Before responding to an insult with an insult, it is worth thinking: should one stoop to being offended? After all, resentment usually lies somewhere low and you should bend down to it in order to pick it up.
If you still decide to be offended, then first perform some mathematical operation - subtraction, division, etc. Let's say you were insulted for something for which you were only partly to blame. Subtract from your feelings of resentment everything that does not apply to you. Let's say that you were offended for noble reasons - divide your feelings into the noble motives that caused the offensive remark, etc. Having performed some necessary mathematical operation in your mind, you will be able to respond to the insult with greater dignity, which will be the more noble the You attach less importance to resentment. Up to certain limits, of course.
In general, excessive touchiness is a sign of a lack of intelligence or some kind of complex. Be smart.
There is good English rule: to be offended only when they want to offend you, they deliberately offend you. There is no need to be offended by simple inattention or forgetfulness (sometimes characteristic of a given person due to age or some psychological shortcomings). On the contrary, show special care to such a “forgetful” person - it will be beautiful and noble.
This is if they “offend” you, but what to do when you yourself can offend someone else? You need to be especially careful when dealing with touchy people. Touchiness is a very painful character trait.
Letter ten
HONOR TRUE AND FALSE
I don't like definitions and am often not ready for them. But I can point out some differences between conscience and honor.
There is one significant difference between conscience and honor. Conscience always comes from the depths of the soul, and by conscience one is purified to one degree or another. Conscience is gnawing. Conscience is never false. It can be muted or too exaggerated (extremely rare). But ideas about honor can be completely false, and these false ideas cause enormous damage to society. I mean what is called “uniform honor.” We have lost such a phenomenon, unusual for our society, as the concept of noble honor, but the “honor of the uniform” remains a heavy burden. It was as if the man had died, and only the uniform remained, from which the orders had been removed. And inside which a conscientious heart no longer beats.
“The honor of the uniform” forces managers to defend false or flawed projects, insist on the continuation of obviously unsuccessful construction projects, fight with societies protecting monuments (“our construction is more important”), etc. Many examples of such defense of “uniform honor” can be given.
True honor is always in accordance with conscience. False honor is a mirage in the desert, in the moral desert of the human (or rather, “bureaucratic”) soul.
Letter Eleven
ABOUT CAREERISM
A person develops from the first day of his birth. He is focused on the future. He learns, learns to set new tasks for himself, without even realizing it. And how quickly he masters his position in life. He already knows how to hold a spoon and pronounce the first words.
Then, as a boy and a young man, he also studies.
And the time has come to apply your knowledge and achieve what you strived for. Maturity. We must live in the present...
But the acceleration continues, and now, instead of studying, the time comes for many to master their situation in life. The movement proceeds by inertia. A person is always striving towards the future, and the future is no longer in real knowledge, not in mastering skills, but in placing oneself in an advantageous position. The content, the real content, is lost. The present time does not come, there is still an empty aspiration to the future. This is careerism. Internal anxiety that makes a person personally unhappy and unbearable for others.
Letter Twelve
A PERSON MUST BE INTELLIGENT
A person must be intelligent! What if his profession does not require intelligence? And if he could not get an education: that’s how the circumstances developed. And if environment doesn't allow it? What if his intelligence makes him a “black sheep” among his colleagues, friends, relatives, and simply prevents him from getting closer to other people?
No, no and NO! Intelligence is needed under all circumstances. It is necessary both for others and for the person himself.
This is very, very important, and above all in order to live happily and long - yes, long! For intelligence is equal to moral health, and health is needed to live long - not only physically, but also mentally. One old book says: “Honor your father and your mother, and you will live long on earth.” This applies to both an entire nation and an individual. That's wise.
But first of all, let’s define what intelligence is, and then why it is connected with the commandment of longevity.
Many people think: an intelligent person is one who has read a lot, received a good education (and even mainly a humanitarian one), traveled a lot, and knows several languages.
Meanwhile, you can have all this and be unintelligent, and you can not possess any of this to a large extent, but still be an internally intelligent person.
Education cannot be confused with intelligence. Education lives by old content, intelligence - by creating new things and recognizing the old as new.
Moreover... Deprive a truly intelligent person of all his knowledge, education, deprive him of his memory. Let him forget everything in the world, he will not know the classics of literature, he will not remember the greatest works of art, he will forget the most important historical events, but if at the same time he remains receptive to intellectual values, a love of acquiring knowledge, an interest in history, an aesthetic sense, he will be able to to distinguish a real work of art from a crude “thing” made only to surprise, if he can admire the beauty of nature, understand the character and individuality of another person, enter into his position, and having understood the other person, help him, he will not show rudeness, indifference, or gloating , envy, but will appreciate another if he shows respect for the culture of the past, the skills of an educated person, responsibility in resolving moral issues, the richness and accuracy of his language - spoken and written - this will be an intelligent person.
Intelligence is not only about knowledge, but about the ability to understand others. It manifests itself in a thousand and a thousand little things: in the ability to argue respectfully, to behave modestly at the table, in the ability to quietly (precisely imperceptibly) help another, to take care of nature, not to litter around you - do not litter with cigarette butts or swearing, bad ideas (this is also garbage, and what else!).
I knew peasants in the Russian North who were truly intelligent. They maintained amazing cleanliness in their homes, knew how to appreciate good songs, knew how to tell “happenings” (that is, what happened to them or others), lived an orderly life, were hospitable and friendly, treated with understanding both the grief of others and someone else's joy.
Intelligence is the ability to understand, to perceive, it is a tolerant attitude towards the world and towards people.
You need to develop intelligence in yourself, train it - train your mental strength, just as you train your physical strength. A. training is possible and necessary in any conditions.
That training physical strength contributes to longevity is understandable. Much less understands that longevity requires training of spiritual and mental strength.
The fact is that an angry and angry reaction to the environment, rudeness and lack of understanding of others is a sign of mental and spiritual weakness, human inability to live... Pushing around in a crowded bus is a weak and nervous person, exhausted, reacting incorrectly to everything. Quarreling with neighbors is also a person who does not know how to live, who is mentally deaf. An aesthetically unresponsive person is also an unhappy person. Someone who cannot understand another person, attributes only evil intentions to him, and is always offended by others - this is also a person who impoverishes his own life and interferes with the lives of others. Mental weakness leads to physical weakness. I'm not a doctor, but I'm convinced of this. Long-term experience has convinced me of this.
Friendliness and kindness make a person not only physically healthy, but also beautiful. Yes, exactly beautiful.
A person’s face, distorted by malice, becomes ugly, and the movements of an evil person are devoid of grace - not deliberate grace, but natural grace, which is much more expensive.
A person's social duty is to be intelligent. This is a duty to yourself. This is the key to his personal happiness and the “aura of goodwill” around him and towards him (that is, addressed to him).
Everything I talk about with young readers in this book is a call to intelligence, to physical and moral health, to the beauty of health. Let us live long as people and as a nation! And veneration of father and mother should be understood broadly - as veneration of all our best in the past, in the past, which is the father and mother of our modernity, great modernity, to which it is great happiness to belong.
Before you is the book “Letters about the good and the beautiful” by one of the outstanding scientists of our time, chairman of the Soviet Culture Foundation, academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. These “letters” are not addressed to anyone in particular, but to all readers. First of all, young people who still have to learn life and walk its difficult paths.
The fact that the author of the letters, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, is a man whose name is known on all continents, an outstanding expert on domestic and world culture, elected an honorary member of many foreign academies, and who holds other honorary titles from major scientific institutions, makes this book especially valuable.
After all, only an authoritative person can give advice. Otherwise, such advice will not be heeded.
And the advice that you can get from reading this book concerns almost all aspects of life.
This is a collection of wisdom, this is the speech of a benevolent Teacher, whose pedagogical tact and ability to speak with students is one of his main talents.
The book was first published by our publishing house in 1985 and has already become a bibliographic rarity - this is evidenced by the numerous letters we receive from readers.
This book is being translated in different countries and into many languages.
This is what D.S. Likhachev himself writes in the preface to the Japanese edition, in which he explains why this book was written:
“In my deep conviction, goodness and beauty are the same for all peoples. United - in two senses: truth and beauty are eternal companions, they are united among themselves and the same for all peoples.
Lies are evil for everyone. Sincerity and truthfulness, honesty and selflessness are always good.
In my book “Letters about the Good and the Beautiful,” intended for children, I try to explain with the simplest arguments that following the path of goodness is the most acceptable and only path for a person. It is tested, it is faithful, it is useful - both to the individual and to society as a whole.
In my letters, I do not try to explain what goodness is and why a good person is internally beautiful, lives in harmony with himself, with society and with nature. There can be many explanations, definitions and approaches. I strive for something else - for specific examples, based on the properties of general human nature.
I do not subordinate the concept of goodness and the accompanying concept of human beauty to any worldview. My examples are not ideological, because I want to explain them to children even before they begin to subordinate themselves to any specific ideological principles.
Children love traditions very much, they are proud of their home, their family, as well as their village. But they readily understand not only their own, but also other people’s traditions, other people’s worldviews, and they grasp what all people have in common.
I will be happy if the reader, no matter what age he belongs to (it happens that adults also read children's books), finds in my letters at least part of what he can agree with.
Harmony between people, different nations, is the most precious thing and now the most necessary for humanity.”
LETTERS TO YOUNG READERS
Letter one
BIG IN SMALL
In the material world you cannot fit the big into the small. In the sphere of spiritual values, it is not so: much more can fit into the small, but if you try to fit the small into the big, then the big will simply cease to exist.
If a person has a great goal, then it should manifest itself in everything - in the most seemingly insignificant. You must be honest in the unnoticed and accidental: only then will you be honest in fulfilling your great duty. A great goal embraces the whole person, is reflected in his every action, and one cannot think that a good goal can be achieved through bad means.
The saying “the end justifies the means” is destructive and immoral. Dostoevsky showed this well in Crime and Punishment. The main character of this work, Rodion Raskolnikov, thought that by killing the disgusting old moneylender, he would get money with which he could then achieve great goals and benefit humanity, but he suffers an internal collapse. The goal is distant and unrealistic, but the crime is real; it is terrible and cannot be justified by anything. You cannot strive for a high goal with low means. You must be equally honest in both big and small things.
The general rule: to preserve the big in the small is necessary, in particular, in science. Scientific truth is the most valuable, and it must be followed in all details of scientific research and in the life of a scientist. If one strives in science for “small” goals - for proof by “force”, contrary to the facts, for the “interestingness” of conclusions, for their effectiveness, or for any forms of self-promotion, then the scientist inevitably fails. Maybe not right away, but eventually! When exaggerations of the obtained research results or even minor manipulations of facts begin and scientific truth is pushed into the background, science ceases to exist, and the scientist himself sooner or later ceases to be a scientist.
One must resolutely observe the great in everything. Then everything is easy and simple.
Letter two
YOUTH IS YOUR WHOLE LIFE
Letter three
THE BIGGEST
What is the biggest goal in life? I think: increase the goodness in those around us. And goodness is, first of all, the happiness of all people. It consists of many things, and every time life presents a person with a task that is important to be able to solve. You can do good to a person in small things, you can think about big things, but small things and big things cannot be separated. Much, as I have already said, begins with little things, originates in childhood and in loved ones.
A child loves his mother and his father, his brothers and sisters, his family, his home. Gradually expanding, his affections extend to school, village, city, and his entire country. And this is already a very big and deep feeling, although one cannot stop there and one must love the person in a person.
You have to be a patriot, not a nationalist. There is no need to hate every other family because you love yours. There is no need to hate other nations because you are a patriot. There is a deep difference between patriotism and nationalism. In the first - love for your country, in the second - hatred of all others.
The great goal of good begins small - with the desire for good for your loved ones, but as it expands, it covers an ever wider range of issues.
It's like ripples on the water. But the circles on the water, expanding, are becoming weaker. Love and friendship, growing and spreading to many things, acquire new strength, become higher, and man, their center, becomes wiser.
Love should not be unconscious, it should be smart. This means that it must be combined with the ability to notice shortcomings and deal with shortcomings - both in a loved one and in the people around them. It must be combined with wisdom, with the ability to separate the necessary from the empty and false. She shouldn't be blind. Blind admiration (you can't even call it love) can lead to dire consequences. A mother who admires everything and encourages her child in everything can raise a moral monster. Blind admiration for Germany (“Germany above all” - the words of a chauvinistic German song) led to Nazism, blind admiration for Italy led to fascism.
Wisdom is intelligence combined with kindness. Mind without kindness is cunning. Cunning gradually withers away and will certainly sooner or later turn against the cunning person himself. Therefore, the cunning is forced to hide. Wisdom is open and reliable. She does not deceive others, and above all the wisest person. Wisdom brings the sage a good name and lasting happiness, brings reliable, long-lasting happiness and that calm conscience that is most valuable in old age.
How can I express the commonality between my three propositions: “Big in small”, “Youth is always” and “The biggest”? It can be expressed in one word, which can become a motto: “Loyalty.” Loyalty to the great principles that should guide a person in big and small things, loyalty to his impeccable youth, his homeland in the broad and narrow sense of this concept, loyalty to family, friends, city, country, people. Ultimately, fidelity is fidelity to truth—truth-truth and truth-justice.
Letter Four
THE BIGGEST VALUE IS LIFE
“Inhale, exhale, exhale!” I hear the voice of the gymnastics instructor: “To breathe deeply, you need to exhale well. First of all, learn to exhale and get rid of “waste air.”
Life is, first of all, breathing. "Soul", "spirit"! And he died - first of all - “stopped breathing.” That's what they thought from time immemorial. “Spirit out!” - it means “died.”
It can be “stuffy” in the house, and “stuffy” in moral life as well. Take a good breath out of all the petty worries, all the bustle of everyday life, get rid of, shake off everything that hinders the movement of thought, that crushes the soul, that does not allow a person to accept life, its values, its beauty.
A person should always think about what is most important for himself and for others, throwing off all empty worries.
We must be open to people, tolerant of people, and look for the best in them first of all. The ability to seek and find the best, simply “good”, “overshadowed beauty” enriches a person spiritually.
To notice beauty in nature, in a village, a city, a street, not to mention in a person, through all the barriers of little things - this means expanding the sphere of life, the sphere of the living space in which a person lives.
I've been looking for this word for a long time - sphere. At first I said to myself: “We need to expand the boundaries of life,” but life has no boundaries! This is not a plot of land surrounded by a fence - boundaries. Expanding the limits of life is not suitable for expressing my thoughts for the same reason. Expanding the horizons of life is already better, but still something is not right. Maximilian Voloshin has a well-invented word - “okoe”. This is everything that the eye can accommodate, that it can embrace. But even here the limitations of our everyday knowledge interfere. Life cannot be reduced to everyday impressions. We must be able to feel and even notice what is beyond our perception, to have, as it were, a “premonition” of something new that is opening or could be revealed to us. The greatest value in the world is life: someone else’s, one’s own, the life of the animal world and plants, the life of culture, life throughout its entire length - in the past, in the present, and in the future... And life is infinitely deep. We always come across something we haven’t noticed before, something that amazes us with its beauty, unexpected wisdom, and uniqueness.
Letter five
WHAT IS A SENSE OF LIFE
You can define the purpose of your existence in different ways, but there must be a purpose - otherwise there will be no life, but vegetation.
You also need to have principles in life. It’s even good to write them down in a diary, but for the diary to be “real”, it cannot be shown to anyone - write only for yourself.
Every person should have one rule in life, in his goal of life, in his principles of life, in his behavior: he must live his life with dignity, so that he will not be ashamed to remember.
Dignity requires kindness, generosity, the ability not to be a narrow egoist, to be truthful, a good friend, and to find joy in helping others.
For the sake of the dignity of life, one must be able to give up small pleasures and considerable ones too... Being able to apologize and admit a mistake to others is better than fussing and lying.
When deceiving, a person first of all deceives himself, because he thinks that he has successfully lied, but people understood and, out of delicacy, remained silent.
Letter six
PURPOSE AND SELF-ESTEEM
When a person consciously or intuitively chooses some Goal or life task for himself in life, he at the same time involuntarily gives himself an assessment. By what a person lives for, one can judge his self-esteem - low or high.
If a person sets himself the task of acquiring all the basic material goods, he evaluates himself at the level of these material goods: as the owner of the latest brand of car, as the owner of a luxurious dacha, as part of his furniture set...
If a person lives to bring good to people, to alleviate their suffering from illness, to give people joy, then he evaluates himself at the level of this humanity. He sets himself a goal worthy of a person.
Only a vital goal allows a person to live his life with dignity and get real joy. Yes, joy! Think: if a person sets himself the task of increasing goodness in life, bringing happiness to people, what failures can befall him?
Help the wrong person who should? But how many people don't need help? If you are a doctor, then perhaps you misdiagnosed the patient? This happens to the best doctors. But in total, you still helped more than you didn’t help. No one is immune from mistakes. But the most important mistake, the fatal mistake, is choosing the wrong main task in life. Didn't get promoted - disappointing. I didn’t have time to buy a stamp for my collection – it’s a shame. Someone has better furniture than you or a better car - again a disappointment, and what a disappointment!
When setting the goal of a career or acquisition, a person experiences in total much more sorrows than joys, and risks losing everything. What can a person who rejoices in every good deed lose? It is only important that the good that a person does should be his inner need, come from an intelligent heart, and not just from the head, and should not be a “principle” alone.
Therefore, the main task in life must necessarily be a task that is broader than just personal; it should not be limited only to one’s own successes and failures. It should be dictated by kindness towards people, love for family, for your city, for your people, for your country, for the entire universe.
Does this mean that a person should live like an ascetic, not take care of himself, not acquire anything and not enjoy a simple promotion? Not at all! A person who does not think about himself at all is an abnormal phenomenon and personally unpleasant to me: there is some kind of breakdown in this, some ostentatious exaggeration of his kindness, unselfishness, significance, in this there is some kind of peculiar contempt for other people , the desire to stand out.
Therefore, I am only talking about the main task in life. And this main life task does not need to be emphasized in the eyes of other people. And you need to dress well (this is respect for others), but not necessarily “better than others.” And you need to compile a library for yourself, but not necessarily larger than your neighbor’s. And it’s good to buy a car for yourself and your family – it’s convenient. Just don’t turn the secondary into the primary, and don’t let the main goal of life exhaust you where it’s not necessary. When you need it is another matter. There we will see who is capable of what.
Letter seven
WHAT UNITES PEOPLE
Floors of care. Caring strengthens relationships between people. It binds families together, binds friendships, binds together fellow villagers, residents of one city, one country.
Trace a person's life.
A person is born, and the first care for him is his mother; gradually (after just a few days) the father’s care for him comes into direct contact with the child (before the birth of the child, care for him already existed, but was to a certain extent “abstract” - the parents were preparing for the birth of the child, dreaming about him).
The feeling of caring for another appears very early, especially in girls. The girl doesn’t speak yet, but she’s already trying to take care of the doll, nursing it. Boys, very small, love to pick mushrooms and fish. Girls also love to pick berries and mushrooms. And they collect not only for themselves, but for the whole family. They take it home and prepare it for the winter.
Gradually, children become objects of increasingly higher care and themselves begin to show real and broad care - not only about the family, but also about the school where parental care placed them, about their village, city and country...
Caring is expanding and becoming more altruistic. Children pay for caring for themselves by caring for their elderly parents, when they can no longer repay the children’s care. And this concern for the elderly, and then for the memory of deceased parents, seems to merge with concern for the historical memory of the family and homeland as a whole.
If care is directed only at oneself, then an egoist grows up.
Caring brings people together, strengthens the memory of the past and is aimed entirely at the future. This is not the feeling itself - it is a concrete manifestation of the feeling of love, friendship, patriotism. A person must be caring. A carefree or carefree person is most likely a person who is unkind and does not love anyone.
Morality is characterized to the highest degree by a sense of compassion. In compassion there is a consciousness of one’s unity with humanity and the world (not only people, nations, but also with animals, plants, nature, etc.). A feeling of compassion (or something close to it) makes us fight for cultural monuments, for their preservation, for nature, individual landscapes, for respect for memory. In compassion there is a consciousness of one’s unity with other people, with a nation, people, country, universe. That is why the forgotten concept of compassion requires its complete revival and development.
A surprisingly correct thought: “A small step for a person, a big step for humanity.”
Thousands of examples can be given of this: it costs nothing for one person to be kind, but it is incredibly difficult for humanity to become kind. It is impossible to correct humanity, it is easy to correct yourself. Feeding a child, walking an old man across the street, giving up a seat on a tram, working well, being polite and courteous... etc., etc. - all this is easy for a person, but incredibly difficult for everyone at once. That's why you need to start with yourself.
Good cannot be stupid. A good deed is never stupid, because it is selfless and does not pursue the goal of profit and “smart results.” A good deed can be called “stupid” only when it clearly could not achieve the goal or was “false good,” mistakenly kind, that is, not kind. I repeat, a truly good deed cannot be stupid, it is beyond evaluation from the point of view of the mind or not the mind. So good and good.
Letter Eight
BE FUN BUT NOT BE FUNNY
They say that content determines form. This is true, but the opposite is also true: the content depends on the form. The famous American psychologist of the beginning of this century, D. James, wrote: “We cry because we are sad, but we are also sad because we cry.” Therefore, let's talk about the form of our behavior, about what should become our habit and what should also become our internal content.
Once upon a time it was considered indecent to show with all your appearance that a misfortune had happened to you, that you were in grief. A person should not have imposed his depressed state on others. It was necessary to maintain dignity even in grief, to be even with everyone, not to become self-absorbed and to remain as friendly and even cheerful as possible. The ability to maintain dignity, not to impose one’s sorrows on others, not to spoil others’ moods, to always be even in dealing with people, to always be friendly and cheerful is a great and real art that helps to live in society and society itself.
But how cheerful should you be? Noisy and intrusive fun is tiring for those around you. A young man who is always spitting out witticisms is no longer perceived as behaving with dignity. He becomes a buffoon. And this is the worst thing that can happen to a person in society, and it ultimately means a loss of humor.
Don't be funny.
Not being funny is not only an ability to behave, but also a sign of intelligence.
You can be funny in everything, even in the way you dress. If a man carefully matches his tie to his shirt, or his shirt to his suit, he is ridiculous. Excessive concern for one's appearance is immediately visible. We must take care to dress decently, but this concern for men should not go beyond certain limits. A man who cares excessively about his appearance is unpleasant. A woman is a different matter. Men's clothes should have only a hint of fashion. A perfectly clean shirt, clean shoes and a fresh, but not very bright tie are enough. The suit may be old, it should not just be unkempt.
When talking with others, know how to listen, know how to be silent, know how to joke, but rarely and at the right time. Take up as little space as possible. Therefore, at dinner, do not put your elbows on the table, embarrassing your neighbor, but also do not try too hard to be the “life of the party.” Observe moderation in everything, do not be intrusive even with your friendly feelings.
Don't be tormented by your shortcomings if you have them. If you stutter, don't think it's too bad. Stutterers can be excellent speakers, meaning every word they say. The best lecturer at Moscow University, famous for its eloquent professors, historian V. O. Klyuchevsky stuttered. A slight squint can add significance to the face, while lameness can add significance to movements. But if you're shy, don't be afraid of it either. Don't be ashamed of your shyness: Shyness is very cute and not at all funny. She only becomes funny if you try too hard to overcome her and are embarrassed by her. Be simple and forgiving of your shortcomings. Don't suffer from them. There is nothing worse when an “inferiority complex” develops in a person, and with it bitterness, hostility towards other people, and envy. A person loses what is best in him - kindness.
There is no better music than silence, silence in the mountains, silence in the forest. There is no better “music in a person” than modesty and the ability to remain silent, not to come to the forefront. There is nothing more unpleasant and stupid in a person’s appearance and behavior than being important or noisy; There is nothing funnier in a man than excessive care for his suit and hairstyle, calculated movements and a “fountain of witticisms” and anecdotes, especially if they are repeated.
In your behavior, be afraid to be funny and try to be modest and quiet.
Never let yourself go, always be even with people, respect the people who surround you.
Here are some tips, it would seem, about secondary things - about your behavior, about your appearance, but also about your inner world: do not be afraid of your physical shortcomings. Treat them with dignity and you will look elegant.
I have a girl friend who has a slightly hunchback. Honestly, I never tire of admiring her grace on those rare occasions when I meet her at museum openings (everyone meets there - that’s why they are cultural holidays).
And one more thing, and perhaps the most important: be truthful. He who seeks to deceive others first of all deceives himself. He naively thinks that they believed him, and those around him were actually just polite. But a lie always reveals itself, a lie is always “felt”, and you not only become disgusting, worse, you become ridiculous.
Don't be funny! Truthfulness is beautiful, even if you admit that you deceived before on some occasion, and explain why you did it. This will correct the situation. You will be respected and you will show your intelligence.
Simplicity and “silence” in a person, truthfulness, lack of pretensions in clothing and behavior - this is the most attractive “form” in a person, which also becomes his most elegant “content”.
Letter Nine
WHEN SHOULD YOU BE OFFENDED?
You should only be offended when they want to offend you. If they don’t want to, and the reason for the offense is an accident, then why be offended?
Without getting angry, clear up the misunderstanding - that’s all.
Well, what if they want to offend? Before responding to an insult with an insult, it is worth thinking: should one stoop to being offended? After all, resentment usually lies somewhere low and you should bend down to it in order to pick it up.
If you still decide to be offended, then first perform some mathematical operation - subtraction, division, etc. Let's say you were insulted for something for which you were only partly to blame. Subtract from your feelings of resentment everything that does not apply to you. Let's say that you were offended for noble reasons - divide your feelings into the noble motives that caused the offensive remark, etc. Having performed some necessary mathematical operation in your mind, you will be able to respond to the insult with greater dignity, which will be the more noble the You attach less importance to resentment. Up to certain limits, of course.
In general, excessive touchiness is a sign of a lack of intelligence or some kind of complex. Be smart.
There is a good English rule: be offended only when you want offend intentionally offended. There is no need to be offended by simple inattention or forgetfulness (sometimes characteristic of a given person due to age or some psychological shortcomings). On the contrary, show special care to such a “forgetful” person - it will be beautiful and noble.
This is if they “offend” you, but what to do when you yourself can offend someone else? You need to be especially careful when dealing with touchy people. Touchiness is a very painful character trait.
Letter ten
HONOR TRUE AND FALSE
I don't like definitions and am often not ready for them. But I can point out some differences between conscience and honor.
There is one significant difference between conscience and honor. Conscience always comes from the depths of the soul, and by conscience one is purified to one degree or another. Conscience is gnawing. Conscience is never false. It can be muted or too exaggerated (extremely rare). But ideas about honor can be completely false, and these false ideas cause enormous damage to society. I mean what is called “uniform honor.” We have lost such a phenomenon, unusual for our society, as the concept of noble honor, but the “honor of the uniform” remains a heavy burden. It was as if the man had died, and only the uniform remained, from which the orders had been removed. And inside which a conscientious heart no longer beats.
“The honor of the uniform” forces managers to defend false or flawed projects, insist on the continuation of obviously unsuccessful construction projects, fight with societies protecting monuments (“our construction is more important”), etc. Many examples of such defense of “uniform honor” can be given.
True honor is always in accordance with conscience. False honor is a mirage in the desert, in the moral desert of the human (or rather, “bureaucratic”) soul.
Letter Eleven
ABOUT CAREERISM
A person develops from the first day of his birth. He is focused on the future. He learns, learns to set new tasks for himself, without even realizing it. And how quickly he masters his position in life. He already knows how to hold a spoon and pronounce the first words.
Then, as a boy and a young man, he also studies.
And the time has come to apply your knowledge and achieve what you strived for. Maturity. We must live in the present...
But the acceleration continues, and now, instead of studying, the time comes for many to master their situation in life. The movement proceeds by inertia. A person is always striving towards the future, and the future is no longer in real knowledge, not in mastering skills, but in placing oneself in an advantageous position. The content, the real content, is lost. The present time does not come, there is still an empty aspiration to the future. This is careerism. Internal anxiety that makes a person personally unhappy and unbearable for others.
Letter Twelve
A PERSON MUST BE INTELLIGENT
A person must be intelligent! What if his profession does not require intelligence? And if he could not get an education: that’s how the circumstances developed. What if the environment doesn’t allow it? What if his intelligence makes him a “black sheep” among his colleagues, friends, relatives, and simply prevents him from getting closer to other people?
No, no and NO! Intelligence is needed under all circumstances. It is necessary both for others and for the person himself.
This is very, very important, and above all in order to live happily and long - yes, long! For intelligence is equal to moral health, and health is needed to live long - not only physically, but also mentally. One old book says: “Honor your father and your mother, and you will live long on earth.” This applies to both an entire nation and an individual. That's wise.
But first of all, let’s define what intelligence is, and then why it is connected with the commandment of longevity.
Many people think: an intelligent person is one who has read a lot, received a good education (and even mainly a humanitarian one), traveled a lot, and knows several languages.
Meanwhile, you can have all this and be unintelligent, and you can not possess any of this to a large extent, but still be an internally intelligent person.
Education cannot be confused with intelligence. Education lives by old content, intelligence – by creating new things and recognizing the old as new.
Moreover... Deprive a truly intelligent person of all his knowledge, education, deprive him of his memory. Let him forget everything in the world, he will not know the classics of literature, he will not remember the greatest works of art, he will forget the most important historical events, but if at the same time he remains receptive to intellectual values, a love of acquiring knowledge, an interest in history, an aesthetic sense, he will be able to to distinguish a real work of art from a crude “thing” made only to surprise, if he can admire the beauty of nature, understand the character and individuality of another person, enter into his position, and having understood the other person, help him, he will not show rudeness, indifference, or gloating , envy, but will appreciate another if he shows respect for the culture of the past, the skills of an educated person, responsibility in resolving moral issues, the richness and accuracy of his language - spoken and written - this will be an intelligent person.
Intelligence is not only about knowledge, but about the ability to understand others. It manifests itself in a thousand and a thousand little things: in the ability to argue respectfully, to behave modestly at the table, in the ability to quietly (precisely imperceptibly) help another, to take care of nature, not to litter around oneself - do not litter with cigarette butts or swearing, bad ideas (this is also garbage, and what else!).
I knew peasants in the Russian North who were truly intelligent. They maintained amazing cleanliness in their homes, knew how to appreciate good songs, knew how to tell “happenings” (that is, what happened to them or others), lived an orderly life, were hospitable and friendly, treated with understanding both the grief of others and someone else's joy.
Intelligence is the ability to understand, to perceive, it is a tolerant attitude towards the world and towards people.
You need to develop intelligence in yourself, train it – train your mental strength, just as you train your physical strength. A. training is possible and necessary in any conditions.
That training physical strength contributes to longevity is understandable. Much less understands that longevity requires training of spiritual and mental strength.
The fact is that an angry and angry reaction to the environment, rudeness and lack of understanding of others is a sign of mental and spiritual weakness, human inability to live... Pushing around in a crowded bus is a weak and nervous person, exhausted, reacting incorrectly to everything. Quarreling with neighbors is also a person who does not know how to live, who is mentally deaf. An aesthetically unresponsive person is also an unhappy person. Someone who cannot understand another person, attributes only evil intentions to him, and is always offended by others - this is also a person who impoverishes his own life and interferes with the lives of others. Mental weakness leads to physical weakness. I'm not a doctor, but I'm convinced of this. Long-term experience has convinced me of this.
Friendliness and kindness make a person not only physically healthy, but also beautiful. Yes, exactly beautiful.
A person’s face, distorted by malice, becomes ugly, and the movements of an evil person are devoid of grace - not deliberate grace, but natural grace, which is much more expensive.
A person's social duty is to be intelligent. This is a duty to yourself. This is the key to his personal happiness and the “aura of goodwill” around him and towards him (that is, addressed to him).
Everything I talk about with young readers in this book is a call to intelligence, to physical and moral health, to the beauty of health. Let us live long as people and as a nation! And veneration of father and mother should be understood broadly - as veneration of all our best in the past, in the past, which is the father and mother of our modernity, great modernity, to which it is great happiness to belong.
Letter thirteen
ABOUT EDUCAMENT
Letter fourteen
ABOUT BAD AND GOOD INFLUENCES
In the life of every person there is a curious age-related phenomenon: third-party influences. These outside influences are usually extremely strong when a boy or girl begins to become an adult - at a turning point. Then the power of these influences passes. But boys and girls need to remember about influences, their “pathology”, and sometimes normality.
Maybe there is no special pathology here: just a growing person, a boy or a girl, wants to quickly become an adult, independent. But, becoming independent, they strive to free themselves, first of all, from the influence of their family. The idea of their “childhood” is associated with their family. The family itself is partly to blame for this, as it does not notice that their “child,” if not grown up, then wants to be an adult. But the habit of obeying has not yet passed, and so he “obeys” the one who recognized him as an adult - sometimes a person who has not yet become an adult and truly independent.
Influences are both good and bad. Remember this. But you should be wary of bad influences. Because a person with a will does not succumb to bad influence, he chooses his own path. A weak-willed person succumbs to bad influences. Be afraid of unconscious influences: especially if you do not yet know how to accurately and clearly distinguish good from bad, if you like the praise and approval of your comrades, no matter what these praises and approvals may be: as long as they are praised.
Letter fifteen
ABOUT ENVY
If a heavyweight breaks a new world record in weight lifting, do you envy him? What if I'm a gymnast? What if the record holder for diving from a tower into the water?
Start listing everything you know and what you can envy: you will notice that the closer you are to your job, specialty, life, the stronger the proximity of envy. It’s like in a game – cold, warm, even warmer, hot, burned!
On the last one, you found an item hidden by other players while blindfolded. It's the same with envy. The closer the achievement of another to your specialty, to your interests, the more the burning danger of envy increases.
A terrible feeling that primarily affects those who envy.
Now you will understand how to get rid of the extremely painful feeling of envy: develop your own individual inclinations, your own uniqueness in the world around you, be yourself, and you will
you will never be jealous. Envy develops primarily where you are
a stranger to yourself. Envy develops primarily where you are not
distinguish yourself from others. If you are jealous, it means you haven’t found yourself.
Letter sixteen
ABOUT GREED
I am not satisfied with the dictionary definitions of the word “greed.” “The desire to satisfy an excessive, insatiable desire for something” or “stinginess, greed” (this is from one of the best dictionaries of the Russian language - four volumes, its first volume was published in 1957). In principle, this definition of the four-volume Dictionary is correct, but it does not convey the feeling of disgust that covers me when I observe manifestations of greed in a person. Greed is the oblivion of one’s own dignity, it is an attempt to put one’s material interests above oneself, it is a mental crookedness, a terrible orientation of the mind that is extremely limiting, mental witheredness, pitifulness, a jaundiced view of the world, bile towards oneself and others, oblivion of comradeship. Greed in a person is not even funny, it is humiliating. She is hostile to herself and others. Reasonable frugality is another matter; greed is its distortion, its disease. Thrift controls the mind, greed controls the mind.
Letter seventeen
BE ABLE TO ARGUE WITH DIGNITY
In life you have to argue a lot, object, refute the opinions of others, and disagree.
A person shows his good manners best when he leads a discussion, argues, defending his beliefs.
In a dispute, intelligence, logical thinking, politeness, the ability to respect people and... self-respect are immediately revealed.
If in a dispute a person cares not so much about the truth as about victory over his opponent, does not know how to listen to his opponent, strives to “shout out” his opponent, frighten him with accusations, he is an empty person, and his argument is empty.
How does an intelligent and polite debater conduct an argument?
First of all, he listens carefully to his opponent - a person who does not agree with his opinion. Moreover, if anything is unclear to him about his opponent’s positions, he asks him additional questions. And one more thing: even if all the opponent’s positions are clear, he will select the weakest points in the opponent’s statements and ask again whether this is what his opponent is asserting.
By carefully listening to his opponent and asking again, the arguer achieves three goals: 1) the opponent will not be able to argue that he was “misunderstood”, that he “did not claim this”; 2) the arguer, by his attentive attitude to the opponent’s opinion, immediately wins sympathy among those who observe the dispute; 3) the arguer, by listening and asking again, gains time to think about his own objections (and this is also important), to clarify his positions in the dispute.
End of free trial.
