These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness, and worship without awareness.
You see persons and things not as they are but as you are.
People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.
When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.
Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.
If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know. An overwhelming passion for it.” “No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.
When you get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding... you can be yourself. Relaxed. You'll no longer be driving with your brakes on.
When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today.
Don't ask the world to change....you change first.
There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.
People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favour progress, provided they can have it without change.
Every word, every image used for God is a distortion more than a description.
The one who would be constant in happiness must frequently change.
Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.
You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story.
Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.
The greatest learning of the ages lies in accepting life exactly as it comes to us.
The world is right because I feel good. p. 83, Awareness, copyright 1990
As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.
The Rose does not preen herself to catch my eye. She blooms because she blooms. A saint is a saint until he knows he is one.
Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.
You are so proud of your intelligence," said the master. "You are like a like a condemned man, proud of the vastness of his prison cell.
Don’t try to make them happy, you’ll only get in trouble. Don’t try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it irritates the pig.
A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality.
If what you said was true, where was the need to shout?
What is love?"; "The total absence of fear," said the Master; "What is it we fear?"; "Love," said the Master.
Sinners often speak the truth. And saints have led people astray. Examine what is said, not the one who says it.
As one man said, "I got a pretty good education. It took me years to get over it." That's what spirituality is all about, you know: unlearning. Unlearning all the rubbish they taught you.
Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence.
Certainty is the culprit. The spiritual person knows uncertainty—a state of mind unknown to the religious fanatic.