284 quotes
My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean's edge as I can go.
Attributed
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Misattributed
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Misattributed
What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.
Disputed
Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion; as if the short spring days were an eternity.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)
Whate'er we leave to God, God does
And blesses us.
Attributed
I hear beyond the range of sound,
I see beyond the range of sight,
New earths and skies and seas around,
And in my day the sun doth pale his light.
Attributed
The religion and philosophy of the Hebrews are those of a wilder and ruder tribe, wanting the civility and intellectual refinements and subtlety of Vedic culture.
Attributed A Tribute to Hinduism (2008)
Nothing more strikingly betrays the credulity of mankind than medicine. Quackery is a thing universal, and universally successful. In this case it becomes literally true that no imposition is too great for the credulity of men.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)
The violence of love is as much to be dreaded as that of hate. When it is durable, it is serene and equable. Even its famous pains begin only with the ebb of love, for few are indeed lovers, though all would fain be.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)
One may discover the root of a Hindoo religion in his own private history, when, in the silent intervals of the day or night, he does sometimes inflict on himself like austerities with a stern satisfaction.
Attributed Snakes in the Ganga (2022)
The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those who are taken into it live like pensioners in their Retreat or Sailors' Snug Harbor, where you may see a row of religious cripples sitting outside in sunny weather.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)
Enthusiasm is supernatural serenity.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)
The reader is nowhere raised into and sustained in a bigger, purer or rarer region of thought than in the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita's sanity and sublimity have impressed the minds of even soldiers and merchants.
Attributed A Tribute to Hinduism (2008)
'Instead of noble men, let us have noble villages of men. If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the river, round a little there and throw one arch at least over the darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us'
Attributed
The Vedas contain a sensible account of God." "The veneration in which the Vedas are held is itself a remarkable feat. Their code embraced the whole moral life of the Hindus and in such a case there is no other truth than sincerity. Truth is such by reference to the heart of man within, not to any standard without.
Attributed A Tribute to Hinduism (2008)
The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation: he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and, united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating original matter. To some extent, and at rare intervals even I am a yogi.
Attributed
We do not directly go about the execution of the purpose that thrills us, but shut our doors behind us, and ramble with prepared minds, as if the half were already done. Our resolution is taking root or hold on the earth then, as seeds first send a shoot downward, which is fed by their own albumen, ere they send one upwards to the light.
Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)