194 quotes
If I draw a conclusion, I act on an idea, on an image, on a symbol, which is the structure of thought, and so I am constantly preventing myself from having insight, from understanding things as they are.
On Mind and Thought (1993)
What religion a man holds, to what race he belongs — these things are not important; the really important thing is this knowledge — the knowledge of God's plan for men. For God has a plan, and that plan is evolution.
At the Feet of the Master (1911)
Compassion and intelligence walk together; they are not separate. Compassion acts through intelligence.
Letters to the Schools (1981)
It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
The Eden Express (1975)
Thought nourishes, sustains and gives continuity to fear and pleasure.
Are we wasting our lives? By that word “wasting” we mean dissipating our energy in various ways, dissipating it in specialized professions.
That Benediction is Where You Are (1985)
From childhood we are trained to have problems. When we are sent to school, we have to learn how to write, how to read, and all the rest of it.
That Benediction is Where You Are (1985)
Psychological knowledge has made us dull.
Truth does not belong to an individual.
One can go on endlessly reading, discussing, piling up words upon words, without ever doing anything about it. It is like a man that is always ploughing, never sowing, and therefore never reaping. Most of us are in that position.
The Awakening of Intelligence (1973)
No book can teach you about yourself, no psychologist, none of the professors or philosophers. What they can teach you is what they think you are or what they think you should be.
Truth cannot be sought; it comes to you. You can go after only what is known. When the mind is not tortured by the known, by the effects of the known, then only can truth reveal itself.
It ends.
This is the last talk.
Without love the acquisition of knowledge only increases confusion and leads to self-destruction.
Why does the brain retain the memory of the hurt from yesterday?
Control exists only when there is action of will, positively or negatively. Will is resistance. When the mind is learning, there is no resistance.
Think of the awful slaughter produced by the superstition that animals should be sacrificed, and by the still more cruel superstition that man needs flesh for food.
At the Feet of the Master (1911)
He who would walk upon the Path must learn to think for himself, for superstition is one of the greatest evils in the world, one of the fetters from which you mast utterly free yourself.
At the Feet of the Master (1911)
Learning in the true sense of the word is possible only in that state of attention, in which there is no outer or inner compulsion. Right thinking can come about only when the mind is not enslaved by tradition and memory.
Life Ahead: On Learning and the Search for Meaning (1963)
Three sins there are which work more harm than all else in the world — gossip, cruelty, and superstition — because they are sins against love. Against these three the man who would fill his heart with the love of God must watch ceaselessly.
At the Feet of the Master (1911)