Selection from Leo Tolstoy’s Book “Bethink Yourselves!” Chapter 9

A religious man in fulfilling the work prescribed to him he God, without arguing as to what precisely will come of that work. A religious man acts thus and not otherwise, not because he desires to act thus, nor because it is advantageous to himself or to other men, but because, believing that his life is in the hands of God, he cannot act otherwise. In this lies the distinction of the activity of religious men; and therefore it is that the salvation of men from the calamities which they inflict upon themselves can be realized only in that degree in which they are guided in their lives, not by advantage nor arguments, but by religious consciousness.