Art begins when a man, with a purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs.
Leo TolstoyRead
A man can spend several hours sitting cross-legged in the same position if he knows that noting prevents him from changing it; but if he knows that he has to sit with his legs crossed like that, he will get cramps, his legs will twitch and strain towards where he would like to stretch them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Freedom of choice can influence our comfort and peace.
Leo Tolstoy's quote highlights the psychological impact of perception on our experience of discomfort. When we feel we have the freedom to change our situation, we can endure challenges more easily; conversely, the knowledge of being stuck in a situation can cause restlessness and discomfort, even when the actual conditions may remain the same.
Themes
FreedomChoicePerceptionComfortDiscomfortPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
During a meditation workshop, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of mindset in enduring discomfort.
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People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing-refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.
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It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.
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Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its power and significance.
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A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
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