Quotations
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men.
True Godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavours to mend it.
The Golden rule is resolutely to refuse to have what millions cannot. This ability to refuse will not descend upon us all of the sudden. The first thing is to cultivate the mental attitude that will not have possessions or facilities denied to millions and the next immediate thing is to rearrange our lives as fast as possible, in accordance with that mentality.
Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication, but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants. This alone promotes real happiness and contentment.
Economics without spirituality can give you temporary and physical gratification, but it cannot provide an internal fulfillment. Spiritual economics brings service, compassion and relationships into equal play with profit and efficiency. We need both and we need them simultaneously.
There are moments in your life when you must act even though you cannot carry your best friends with you. The still small voice within you must always be the final arbiter when there is a conflict of duty.
In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, and cruelty.
Never esteem people (including yourself) more because they have money, nor think less of anyone (including yourself) because they lack it. Virtue is the only just reason for respecting anyone, lack of virtue the only reason for holding anyone in low regard.
I got satisfaction out of doing things that were difficult. It was an incredible feeling. The pain was there, but the pain didn’t matter. But that’s all a lot of people could see; they couldn’t see the good that I was getting out of it myself.
Disappointments that aren’t a result of our own foolishness are a testing of our faith or a correction from heaven, and it is our own fault if these disappointments don’t work for our own good.
Love work: even if you don’t need it for food, you may for mental and spiritual health. It is wholesome for your body and good for your mind. It prevents the fruits of idleness, which come from having nothing to do and which too often lead to something worse than nothing.
Being different sexes makes no difference because there is no sex in the inner person where the substance of friendship lies.
If we better studied and understood God’s creation, this would do a great deal to caution and direct us in our use of it. For how could we find the impudence to abuse the world if we were seeing the great Creator stare us in the face through each and every part of it?
We are inclined to call things by wrong names. We call prosperity ‘happiness’, and adversity ‘misery’ eventhough adversity is the school of wisdom and often the way to eternal happiness.
Never esteem people (including yourself) more because they have money, nor think less of anyone (including yourself) because they lack it. Virtue is the only just reason for respecting anyone, lack of virtue the only reason for holding anyone in low regard.
We are told truly that meekness and modesty are the rich and charming garments of the soul. The less showy our outward attire is, the more distinctly and brilliantly does the beauty of these inner garments shine.
True Godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavours to mend it.
The truly educated man is not a man who knows a bit of everything, not even a man who knows all the details of all subjects (if such a thing were possible). The whole man in fact may have little detailed knowledge of facts and theories… but he will be truly in touch with the centre. He will not be in doubt about his basic convictions, about his own view on the meaning and purpose of life. He may not be able to explain these matters in words, but the conduct of his life will show a certain sureness of touch which stems from his inner clarity.
Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.
What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.
Economics without spirituality can give you temporary and physical gratification, but it cannot provide an internal fulfillment. Spiritual economics brings service, compassion and relationships into equal play with profit and efficiency. We need both and we need them simultaneously.
It is a grave error to accuse a man who pursues self-knowledge of ‘turning his back on society’. The opposite would be more nearly true: that a man who fails to pursue self-knowledge is and remains a danger to society, for he will tend to misunderstand everything that other people say or do, and remain blissfully unaware of the significance of many of the things he does himself.
Somewhere the hurting must stop. I am determined to take myself to the limit for this cause.
The prophet does not turn inwards to find peace and calm there, for the prophet knows that peace without justice is a cover-up. Rather, the prophet turns outward to find God and the God who is found is a verb and not a noun.
This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century — solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others.
