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Here you will read the innermost thoughts and feelings of inspired seekers who have gone before you. Some names you may know… others you will be glad to meet!
Of that which belongs to a man, he cannot rid himself, even though he were to throw it away.
A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.
A heroic person walks at his ease through and out of that custom or precedent or authority that suits him not.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
The sovereign good of a man is a mind that subjects all things to itself, and is itself subject to nothing. Such a man’s pleasures are modest and reserved, and it may be a question whether he goes to heaven or heaven comes to him.
Man is the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself.
Man is not some simple object, nor is he cast in one pattern, but God has made to dwell in the constitution of a single creature a host of forces mingled together and with full-toned voices. We are, I think, a monstrous animal more extraordinary than the Hydra and still more many-headed. For not with the same part of our nature, of course, do we think and desire or feel pain and suffer anger, nor is our fear from the same source as our pleasure. Again you will observe how there is a male element in these organs and a female, and that there is courage and also cowardice. There are, in sooth, all kinds of opposites within us and a certain medial force of nature runs through them which we call “mind.”
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
He who knows the Tao is sure to be well acquainted with the principles that appear in the procedures of things. Acquainted with those principles, he is sure to understand how to regulate his actions in all kinds of circumstances. Having that understanding, he will not allow things to injure him.
I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything unless I hope to produce some good by it.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Who in the world, then, is the man who has any authority to make any declaration about you?
As he advances in the idea of being detached from results and possessions, he will inevitably have to advance in the idea of being detached from concern about his own spiritual development. If he is to relinquish the ego, he will also have to relinquish his attempts to improve it. This applies just as much to its character as to its ideas.
I am quite my own master, agreeably lodged, perfectly easy in my circumstances. I am contented with my situation, and happy because I think myself so.
Every man’s nature is concealed with many folds of disguise, and covered with various veils. His brows, his eyes, and very often his countenance, are deceitful, and his speech is most commonly a lie.
Thus it is said if you know them and know yourself, your victory will not be imperiled. If you know Heaven and you know Earth, your victory can be complete.
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but which stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
All of us who are human beings are in the image of God. But to be in his likeness belongs only to those who by great love have attached their freedom to God.
I exist as I am — that is enough. If no other in the world be aware, I sit content.
Today I have escaped from all trouble, or rather, I have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside me, but within, and in my opinions.
