Browse by: Quotation Source | Entire Living Book | The Search | The Sacred
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!
Give me understanding, and I shall live.
As long as man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way, governments, society, and even the sun and moon and stars.
All is the fear, and nothing is the love;
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.
This pulling out of the imagination which I am recommending, will also forbid us to summon up the memory of past misfortune, to paint a dark picture of the injustice or harm that has been done us, the losses we have sustained, the insults, slights and annoyances to which we have been exposed, for to do that is to arouse fresh life into all those hateful passions long laid asleep — the anger and resentment which disturb and pollute our nature.
Now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself, and by my friends I am abused.
Till now you have gone on and fill’d the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now myself and such
As slept with our traversed arms, and breathed
Our sufferance vainly: now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow in the bearer strong
Cries of itself, “No more.”
I have often been irritated, though it would be comic if the consequences were not so awful, by observing how men shut one another in a delusion and cannot get out of this magic circle.
I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, which does not cower to human opinion, which feels itself accountable to a higher tribunal than man’s, which respects itself too much to be the slave or tool of the many or the few.
To be possessed of an energetic mind is not enough; the first requirement is to use it correctly.
Treat the Earth well, it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
I call that mind free which resists bondage of habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself and copy the past, which does not live on its old virtues, which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but which forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
No man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.
He who commits injustice is made more wretched than he who suffers it.
Let a prince be guarded with soldiers, attended by counsellors, and protected by a fort, yet if his thoughts disturb him, he is miserable.
This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.
These dealings of God in your life lead you to true freedom. This freedom, however, does not lead you into irresponsibility. You will still fulfill your required duties. This freedom will bring you to doing the things that God desires of you. After all, you have discovered you are in God.
The mountain veiled in mist is not a hill; an oak tree in the rain is not a weeping willow.
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
If ever two were one, then surly we.
As ever man is loved by God, then truly me.
