Tolstoy

Growing up as a child of the Lutheran church, I became accustomed to being questioned by my peers in school. The snide remarks about the beliefs that I held dear hurt more than they were intended to. It wasn’t until later on in my life that I realized such interrogations benefited me. Instead of ripping my beliefs at the seams, it forced me to hold them tighter. My religion is personal to me. It gives me an identity, a sense of community, and explanations for the many questions that go…

Violence in all its forms “All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do,” –Leo Tolstoy. This quote discusses violence and fighting and how people force others to fight the battles we ourselves don’t want to fight. In the Iliad Book 1, translated by Robert Fagles, there are several accounts of fighting and violence. Here, the Trojans and Achaeans are at war, Agamemnon and Achilles are fighting over whether or not to…

Chris McCandless wrote in his journal: “Happiness is best when shared” when he was living on his own in the wild of Alaska. This statement can be viewed as deeply ironic considering McCandless intentionally severed his connections from society to be alone. What was his motive to do something so drastic? Jon Krakauer, a man of adventure and thrill seeking searched for an answer, and in his search he discovered the similarities between himself and Chris. Captivated by McCandless’ journey for…

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as “Mahatma Gandhi”, was an Indian leader and an Anti-War Activist. He believed greatly in justice for all people and that we are children of God. Gandhi was born on October 2nd of 1869 in Porbandar, India and was unfortunately killed on January 30th of 1948 by a Hindu fanatic in New Delhi, India. As a young man he studied in three different places one of them being Law at the University College in London (Gandhi Timeline). In addition, during his lifetime…

poll tax hence referred also as tax resistor. Thoreau philosophy on Civil Disobedience purposed the law shouldn’t be followed if ethical institution held them to unfair inspired, many famous personnel that include the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy and Martin Luther King Jr. to name few of them. At the age of 44, on May 6, 1862 he died of…

uniquely and beautifully expressed, have remained within the human psyche since the dawn of humanity. I saw the same themes and thoughts of death that are expressed in Hamlet by Shakespeare given entirely new light in the Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. The same themes of redemption were present in Crime and…

“Shaw was a very great man indeed. The danger is that when all the froth and nonsense about his being a philosopher has died down (as it must) a reaction should set in and lead people to forget his real genius. He was a comedian, in his own time; of the very highest order … He was a humorist of the more intellectual kind, a master of satire, art and fantasy like Gilbert, Wilde and Aristophanes. In that class no one had more continuous vitality. He is also, in his prefaces, one of the great…

Violence in all its forms (A discussion of three different types of violence in the Iliad Book 1) “All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do,” –Leo Tolstoy. This quote discusses violence and fighting and how people force others to fight the battles we ourselves don’t want to fight. In the Iliad Book 1, translated by Robert Fagles, there are several accounts of fighting and violence. Here, the Trojans and…

Throughout this course I have gained more of an appreciation for artwork and the artists that create them. I have also gained an appreciation for the people that try to define what art is in general or more specifically what makes good art. We have read great thinkers and their philosophies on this, and the fact that even people of such great intelligence can disagree on the subject proves how challenging it can be. By reading the opinions of these great thinkers, and by discussing their…

Eulogy As Leo Tolstoy once said, “If you want to be happy, be”. This was one of Raj’s favorite quotes because it explained the mindset he had towards life. Raj was the most positive, easy going, and enthusiastic person I knew. No matter what obstacles Raj was facing in life he always found a way to be happy and he didn’t let anything get him down because he believed that there was no point in being sad if happiness is always an option. Even during his crazy college years when he had tons of…