Great Throughts Treasury

"Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles."

"One may receive the information but miss the teaching."

"Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own."

"Men try to run life according to their wishes; life runs itself according to necessity."

"People mistake their limitations for high standards. "

"Talk about it only enough to do it. Dream about it only enough to feel it. Think about it only enough to understand it. Contemplate it only enough to be it. "

"The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing. "

"We learn the rope of life by untying its knots. "

"Thank everyone who calls out your faults, your anger, your impatience, your egotism; do this consciously, voluntarily."

"Muriel seeks happiness and beauty. Dan informs her that life is a balance between the two, between suffering and laughter, beauty and ugliness. 'There is no such thing as happiness. Life bends joy and pain, beauty and ugliness, in such a way that no one may isolate them. No one should want to. Perfect joy, or perfect pain, with no contrasting element to define them, would mean a monotony of consciousness, would mean death. Not happy, Muriel. Say that you have tried to make them CREATE."

"We start with gifts. Merit comes from what we make of them."