Browse by: Quotation Source | The Seeker | The Search | The Sacred
Explore all of the quotations in our Living Book…
There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of the fulfilment of every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss. If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.
Love between human beings springs from a desire to be made free of another world than one’s own. Every true communion of lovers is a mutual discovery and recognition. Every passion is a passion for release, for that loss of one’s self by which alone one gains life.
Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now.
Unless he attains inner unity man can have no ‘I,’ can have no will. The concept of “will” in relation to a man who has not attained inner unity is entirely artificial. The whole of life is composed of small things which we continually obey and serve. Our ‘I’ continually changes as in a kaleidoscope. Every external event which strikes us, every suddenly aroused emotion, becomes caliph for an hour, begins to build and govern, and is, in its turn, as unexpectedly deposed and replaced by something else. And the inner consciousness, without attempting to disperse the illusory designs created by the shaking of the kaleidoscope and without understanding that in reality the power that decides and acts is not itself, endorses everything and says about these moments of life in which different external forces are at work, “This is I, this is I.”
Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings, but the same God who worketh all in all.
One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.
Kindness is to use one’s will to guard one’s speech and conduct so as not to injure anyone.
Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.
A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.
The first lesson, then, is to sit for some time and let the mind run on. The mind is bubbling up all the time. It is like that monkey jumping about. Let the monkey jump as much as he can; you simply watch and wait. Knowledge is power says the proverb, and that is true. Until you know what the mind is doing you cannot control it. Give it the full length of the reins; many most hideous thoughts may come into it; you will be astonished that it was possible for you to think such thoughts. But you will find that each day the mind’s vagaries are becoming less and less violent, that each day it is becoming calmer… until at last it will be under perfect control, but we must patiently practise every day.
There is nothing more useful to man than that which most agrees with his own nature.
Without going out of doors, one may know the whole world; without looking out of the window, one may see the way of heaven. The further one travels, the less one may know. Thus it is that without moving you may know; without looking you shall see; without doing you shall succeed.
Nor do we think that many of our insoluble difficulties, perplexities, and unanswered questions necessarily exist because of the kind of consciousness we naturally possess, and that a new degree of consciousness would either cause our awareness of them to disappear or bring about an entirely new relation to them.
You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man; a contented mind confers it on all.
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope. For hope would be hope for the wrong thing.
Before making that unkind remark, taste it yourself before you dish it out.
Most become happy only through imitation, and deliberately counterfeit high spirits and cheerfulness.
When we meet with the self thus purified… even while here below, we have attained the heights, and need no further guidance.
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so them, for this is the law and the prophets.
Do not await the fulfillment of the divine cause you serve, but know that none of your efforts are fruitless, for they all advance the cause.
