Selections from "The Pathway of Life" by Leo Tolstoy (vegetarian):Volume 2, The Ills of Life, Part 2 of 2

All that which we call ills, all sorrows – if we only understood them as we ought – improve our souls. The sufferings of irrational life lead us to acknowledge the need of rational life. Just as only the darkness of night reveals the heavenly lights, so only suffering reveals the true purpose of life. Great is God who enlightens us. Enlightens us with what? With the very sorrows from which we would flee and hide. In sorrow and suffering it is given to us to seek out the grains of wisdom that cannot be found in any book. If God gave us teachers of whom we knew for a certainty that they were sent of God Himself, we should obey them freely and gladly. But we have such instructors in necessity and in all the vicissitudes of life. Not only is every visitation of Providence profitable to every creature, but it is profitable at the very time when it is sent. The man who does not realize the beneficial nature of suffering has not commenced to live the life of reason, the true life. I pray God to free me from suffering which troubles me. But this suffering was sent to me by God to deliver me from evil.