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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!
What men have given the name of friendship to is nothing but an alliance, a reciprocal accommodation of interests, an exchange of good offices; in fact, it is nothing but a system of traffic, in which self-love always proposes to itself some advantage.
We easily pardon in our friends those faults which do not affect our own interests.
O’ it is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.
Man has inner necessities. His emotional life is not satisfied by outer things. His organization is not only to be explained in terms of adaptation to outer life. He needs ideas to give meaning to his existence. There is that in him that can grow and develop — some further state of himself — not lying in “tomorrow,” but above him.
The Light by which we see this world comes out of the soul of the observer.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be insulted by a man in a fever. Just so, should a wise man treat all mankind as a physician treats a patient, and look upon it only as sick and irresponsible.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. Restraint is always present in society, like a companion of whom there is no riddance, and in proportion to the greatness of a man’s individuality, it will be hard for him to bear the sacrifices which all contact with others demands.
It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul, for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgements.
Love’s conqueror is he whom love conquers.
The improvement of the mind improves the heart and corrects the understanding.
Many are secretly seeking their own ends in what they do, yet know it not. They seem to live in good peace of mind so long as things go well with them, and according to their desires, but if their desires be frustrated, immediately they are shaken and displeased.
In antiquity those that excelled in warfare first made themselves unconquerable in order to await (the moment when) the enemy could be conquered. Being unconquerable lies with yourself. Being conquerable lies with the enemy.
The very gods envy the bliss of him who has escaped from the floods of passion and has climbed the shores of Nirvana… He is like unto the lotus which grows in the water, yet not a drop of water adheres to its petals. The man who walks in the noble path lives in the world, and yet his heart is not defiled by worldly desires.
If you don’t get what you want, you suffer. If you get what you don’t want, you suffer. Even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change, free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.
What desire there may be can never be for the vile; even the food and drink necessary for restoration will lie outside the soul’s attention, and not less the sexual appetite; if such desire there must be, it will turn upon the actual needs of nature and be entirely under control.
We may be pretty certain that persons whom all the world treats ill deserve entirely the treatment they get. The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly, kind companion.
Be comforted. Our life is but one day of our Life. Let go!
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
