Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales

I strongly like parts of some of these. But prefer the root message to be delivered secularly and have found it overall more powerfully conveyed elsewhere -- like Steinbeck. Lead with kindness.

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In my time, no one ever thought of such a sin as buying or selling bread.

You thought life dwelt in you alone but I have drawn aside the veil of delusion, and have let you see that by doing evil to others you have done it to yourself also. Life is one in them all, and yours is but a portion of this same common life. And only in that one part of life that is yours, can you make life better or worse -- increasing or decreasing it. You can only improve life in yourself by destroying the barriers that divide your life from that of others, and by show more considering others as yourself, and loving them. By so doing you increase your share of life. You injure your life when you think of it as the only life, and try to add to its welfare at the expense of other lives. By so doing you only lessen it. To destroy the life that dwells in others is beyond your power. The life of those you have slain has vanished from your eyes, but is not destroyed. You thought to lengthen your own life and to shorten theirs, but you cannot do this. Life knows neither time nor space. The life of a moment, and the life of a thousand years: your life and the life of all the visible and invisible beings in the world, are equal. To destroy life, or to alter it, is impossible; for life is the one thing that exists. All else, but seems to us to be. show less

folk tales but with a deep spiritual meaning, 26 Mar. 2011
By
sally tarbox

This review is from: WALK IN THE LIGHT: And Twenty-three Tales (Paperback)
I really loved this selection of Tolstoy's short stories; they are simply told, often more like a fairy tale, yet when you finish you sit and ponder long and hard on what you've read. I found them really uplifting and inspiring.

These stories were hit or miss, but those that hit, hit hard. The best from this collection are:

-A Talk Among Leisured People
-God Sees the Truth, but Waits
-What Men Live By
-A Spark Neglected Burns the House
-Two Old Men
-Where Love Is, God Is

My favorite was Where Love Is, God Is. It's a Christmas tale, very touching and a great message.

Thought provoking short stories with great lessons to be learned.

Extremely didactic, as I recall, but perhaps I'll give them another try sometime.