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Saturday, October 28, 2006

Self-confidence!

"I had it in my heart. I believed in myself, and I had confidence. I knew how to do it, had natural talent and I pursued it."

Muhammad Ali

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Patience!

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."

Leo Tolstoy. USSR's author. He was a Russian novelist, philosopher, anarchist, educational performer, vegetarian and pacifist. He is well known until nowadays as a greatest world writer.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, as called at birth, was born on August 28, 1828 (most sources say this while other few sources say - September 9, 1828) at Yasnaya Polyana, in Tula Province, where his wealthy family had estate south of Moscow. Leo Tolstoy was baptized Orthodox during privilege and wealthy life in Czarist Russia in 1828. His family was well known as Russian aristocratic landowners.

His father Count Nicolas Tolstoy was from the Russian pre-Nobility. His mother, Princess Marie Volkonsky passed away two years after his birth. Lev Tolstoy's grandmothers came from the Troubetzkoy and Gorchakov princely families. Alexander Pushkin was his fourth cousin. He was the fourth of five children in his family.

His family rented a house and moved to Moscow while he was nine. Lev Tolstoy lost his father while he was nine and his grandmother passed away soon after his father. These happenings in the family motivated Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy to think deep about death, life and happiness and to formulate some ideas about them. He had no interest in university education so he failed the entry exam the first time, although his aunt encouraged him for months; and she kept on convincing him until he passed the second entry exam.

Leo Tolstoy began studying law and oriental languages in 1844 at Kazan University. Teachers there said he was unable and unwilling to learn, so Leo Tolstoy left the university.

He became interested in university after that for its social aspects only. However, his social life became just as bad as his grades. He was discouraged socially and academically for some times.

Women, wine and cards were the most important interests of his class. Leo Tolstoy became sick of his empty and useless life in Moscow, so he went in 1851 to Caucasus where he joined an artillery unit garrisoned in the Cossack part of Chechnya.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy completed his first story "Childhood" in 1852 and sent it to Nikolai Nekrasov to publish it in the "Sovremennik". The story succeeded and opened a great place in Russian literature for Tolstoy.

In 1854 Leo Tolstoy participated in his army fighting in Wallachia against the Turks and the defence of the Fourth Bastion and the battle of Chernaya River. He wrote "Sebastopol Sketches" soon while he was there beginning the techniques he used later in "War and Peace".

Back from the army in 1855, Leo Tolstoy spent the following years until 1861 between Petersburg, Moscow, Yanaya and some foreign countries. He started a school for peasant children at Yasnaya in 1859. He authored a great number of stories for peasant children too. He published the pedagogical magazine "Yasnaya Polyana" in 1982.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy accepted the post of Justice of the Peace in 1861. His first marriage in 1856 was an unsuccessful, but his second marriage from Sofia Andreyevna Behrs in 23 September 1862 was not only successful, but it was considered the real stability life that led Leo Tolstoy to great achievement in literature. He lived with Sofia a blissful state of self-confidence and satisfied and happy life. Sofia proved to be his ideal wife and mother and mistress of the house. They had thirteen children, five of whom died in their childhoods.

Lot of literature and arts institutions has sited assessments of his writing and the role he had played in the development of the European literature. Lev Tolstoy wrote anarchist essays, various essays on art, history and religion; and his quotes became famous as most of his works: His greatest masterpieces "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", and his other works: "The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories", "Master and Man", "Last Message to Mankind", "Father Sergius", "The Kreutzer Sonata", and "The Forged Coupon".

Lev Tolstoy’s work "The Kingdom of God is Within You" which featured his ideas on non-violent resistance, influenced Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died on November 07, 1910 (some sources say: 20 Nov.) at Astapovo Railway Stationmaster's house.


Collection of some other news in different languages:

Political news in Arabic at - Human Rights Arabic Translation

Political news in English at - Ghost Houses

Political and other news in Danish at - Human Rights in Danish

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Anticipation!

"Opportunity's favorite disguise is trouble."

English proverb

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Resolution to Succeed!

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing."

Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president

Friday, October 13, 2006

Resolutions!

"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it."

Welsh proverb

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Power!

"The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends."

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher. He lived in the late 19th century and challenged the traditional morality and Christianity. He relied on the facts of life on our world not on that world beyond our senses. He inspired leaders in all cultural life like poets, novelists, painters, dancers, musicians, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in a rural farmland southwest of Leipzig in small German town called Rocken bei Lutzen (Rocken bei Lutzen). He was named after the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, because his birthday coincided with the 49th birthday of the king, who had been responsible to appoint Friedrich Nietzsche's father as Rochen's town minister.

Friedrich Nietzsche's grandfathers were Lutheran ministers, but his paternal grandfather, Friedrich August Ludwig Nietzsche, was distinguished as a Protestant scholar. While Friedrich Nietzsche was 4 years old, his father Karl Ludwig Nietzsche died (1813-1849) and his two years old brother, Joseph died six months after his father. The family left the town soon after that, to Naumburg a der Saale, where Friedrich Nietzsche lived for eight years with his mother, Franziska (1826-1897), his paternal grandmother, Erdmuthe, his father's two sisters, Auguste and Rosalie, and his younger sister, Therese Elisabeth Alexandra (1846-1935).

Friedrich Nietzsche attended boarding school Schulpforta near Naumburg at the age of 14 until 19 when he prepared for his university studies. Friedrich Nietzsche led during summers the Germania music and literature club and became acquainted with Richard Wagner's music. Friedrich Nietzsche met Paul Deussen during his studies and they became friends. Deussen became later an Orientalist, historian of philosophy, and the founder of the Schopenhauer Society in 1911.

While Friedrich Nietzsche was a teenager he read the German romantic writings of Friedrich Hölderlin and Jean-Paul Richter, plus David Strauss's "Life of Jesus Critically Examined 1848.

Friedrich Nietzsche graduated from Schulpforta and entered the University of Bonn in 1864 as a theology and philosophy student, but his interests drove him more towards philology.

As a philosopher and philologist Friedrich Nietzsche criticized religion, morality, contemporary culture and philosophy. His published critiques imposed fundamental questions regarding the life-affirming and life-denying qualities of different attitudes and beliefs.

Friedrich Nietzsche received recognition during the 20th century in German, French and some British intellectual institutions and regarded influential figure in modern philosophy.

Friedrich Nietzsche received an extraordinary offer to become professor of classical philology at the University of Basel before having him completed his doctorate. He published during 1873 and 1876 four long essays: David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, Schopenhauer as Educator, and Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. Those four essays published as a collected edition later under the title of: Untimely Meditations.

Friedrich Nietzsche travelled frequently and lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities in Europe. He lived from his pension from Basel and received aid from friends.He published "Daybreak: Reflection on Moral Prejudices" in 1881, the first part of "The Gay Science" in 1882, and "Beyond Good and Evil" in 1886.

Friedrich Nietzsche continued to have frequent attacks of illness. In 1887, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote the polemic "On Genealogy of Morals". He had mental collapse in January 3, 1889. His health deteriorated and he died in August 25, 1900.

From his works:
The Birth of Tragedy
Untimely Meditations
Human, All Too Human
Day break
The Gay Science
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Beyond Good and Evil
On the Genealogy of Morals
The Case of Wagner
The Twilight of the Idols
The Antichrist
Ecce Homo
Nietzsche Contra Wagner

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