Donate to LibriVox Thank a reader

LibriVox recordings are Public Domain in the USA. If you are not in the USA, please verify the copyright status of these works in your own country before downloading, otherwise you may be violating copyright laws.

Download cover art Download CD case insert

On Life

Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)
Translated by Mabel Cook and Agnes Cook

What is the "good life" for us mortal beings? Two months spent recovering from a severe injury allowed Tolstoy to develop and organise his thoughts on the subject. On Life is his philosophical answer where love, religion, and morality come together to ground us in reality. - Summary by Cao Yuqing

Genre(s): Religion, Contemporary

Language: English

Section	Chapter	Reader	Time
Play 00	Introduction	Richard Vogel	00:34:32
Play 01	Chapter 1 The essential contradiction inherent in human life	Arden	00:06:50
Play 02	Chapter 2 Humanity has recognized from the earliest days the contradiction of life...	Luke Hamilton	00:09:04
Play 03	Chapter 3 The errors of the Scribes	Ian S. Carr	00:05:15
Play 04	Chapter 4 The doctrine of the Scribes substitutes the visible manifestation of man's animal existence...	Luke Hamilton	00:07:18
Play 05	Chapter 5 The false doctrines of the Pharisees and Scribes no more explain the true meaning of life...	Tatiana Chichilla	00:09:38
Play 06	Chapter 6 The division in the consciousness of the men of our time	Luke Hamilton	00:06:45
Play 07	Chapter 7 The division of consciousness proceeds from the confusion of the animal life with the human	marvinch	00:07:27
Play 08	Chapter 8 The division and the contradiction are only apparent: they are the consequence of false doctrine	Luke Hamilton	00:05:39
Play 09	Chapter 9 The birth of the true life in man	jenno	00:06:13
Play 10	Chapter 10 Reason is the law recognized by man, in conformity with which his life must be perfected	Kerry Adams	00:06:18
Play 11	Chapter 11 False direction of knowledge	Luke Hamilton	00:09:44
Play 12	Chapter 12 The cause of false knowledge is the false perspective in which objects appear	jenno	00:09:01
Play 13	Chapter 13 The possibility of understanding objects increases not in proportion to their manifestation in time and space...	Luke Hamilton	00:10:55
Play 14	Chapter 14 The true human life is not that which is lived in time and space	pratibhanair	00:08:56
Play 15	Chapter 15 The renunciation of the wellbeing of the animal individuality is the law of human life	Luke Hamilton	00:07:32
Play 16	Chapter 16 The animal individuality is the instrument of life	colleenomorrow	00:05:17
Play 17	Chapter 17 Birth by the Spirit	Luke Hamilton	00:03:25
Play 18	Chapter 18 The demands of the reasonable consciousness	worldwideput	00:10:40
Play 19	Chapter 19 Confirmation of the demands of the reasonable consciousness	John	00:10:22
Play 20	Chapter 20 The demands of the individuality appear incompatible with those of the reasonable consciousness	ivobrkn18Harrop	00:05:30
Play 21	Chapter 21 What is required is not renunciation of our individuality but the subjugation of individuality to the reasonable consciousness	Michael Fassio	00:10:01
Play 22	Chapter 22 The feeling of love is the manifestation of the activity of the individuality subjected to the reasonable consciousness	John	00:10:01
Play 23	Chapter 23 The manifestation of the feeling of love is impossible to men who do not understand the meaning of their life	Paul Lawley-Jones	00:16:54
Play 24	Chapter 24 True love is a consequence of the renunciation of the welfare of the individuality	Tim Juang	00:09:43
Play 25	Chapter 25 Love is the sole and complete activity of the true life	Tim Juang	00:07:58
Play 26	Chapter 26 The efforts of men, directed to the impossible amelioration of their existence, deprive them of the possibility of living the one true life	Jesse Zuba	00:07:01
Play 27	Chapter 27 The fear of death is only the consciousness of the unsolved contradiction of life	Jesse Zuba	00:10:06
Play 28	Chapter 28 Carnal death destroys the body limited in space and the consciousness limited in time...	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:14:04
Play 29	Chapter 29 Men fear death because they have restricted life by their false conception, taking a part of life to be the whole	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:07:19
Play 30	Chapter 30 Life is a relationship to the world. The movement of life is the establishment of new and loftier relationships...	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:07:05
Play 31	Chapter 31 The life of men when they are dead does not cease in this world	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:11:57
Play 32	Chapter 32 The dread of death proceeds from man's confusion of his different relationships to the world	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:09:41
Play 33	Chapter 33 The visible life is a part of the infinite movement of life	czandra	00:11:34
Play 34	Chapter 34 The incomprehensibility of the sufferings of earthly existence proves to man more convincingly than anything...	Luke Hamilton	00:20:40
Play 35	Chapter 35 Physical sufferings constitute an indispensable condition of the life and welfare of men	Luke Hamilton	00:11:30
Play 36	Conclusion	Kerry Adams	00:02:44
Play 37	Appendix I	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:05:24
Play 38	Appendix II	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:04:23
Play 39	Appendix III	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:03:30
Play 40	Appendix IV Mr. H. W. Massingham on "Life"	Jeffrey Allen Stumpf	00:16:36

LibriVox

Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain

Browse the catalog

Listen/Download (help?)

Production details

Links

On Life