Great Throughts Treasury

"By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity."

"Clear your mind of unnecessary thoughts, and in that new clearness and power you will be astonished at the great number of unnecessary thoughts you once believed necessary."

"Can you think of anything more permanently elating than to know that you are on the right road at last?"

"Confidence must rest in knowledge, not hope."

"Comparison is the essence of sickness."

"Consciously risk the loss of something before losing it, and you will lose the fear of losing it."

"Conscious ego-defeat is victory."

"Constantly ask yourself, 'What level is above this one?' This makes things different. Take personal problems for example. Problems are not solved by choosing between this and that. The very need to choose indicates misunderstanding. Problems are solved by outgrowing both this and that."

"Cosmic wisdom reveals why unhappy events happen, after which they cease to happen."

"Defeat has no right to exist."

"Cosmic confidence grows with the simple realization that truth exists — which few people really realize."

"Dissatisfaction is not cured by merely rearranging our divided parts, but by bringing them together in their original form, which produces understanding."

"Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud."

"Develop sincerity by questioning your sincerity."

"Do not resist or complain or fight. Let truth win. If we no longer value our resistance, something new will break through."

"Don’t try to be spiritual. That is only a word in the dictionary. Make it your goal to become a normally functioning individual. Let these principles shape you according to your real nature of a simple, decent, honest, unafraid human being."

"Don’t try to solve the problem, rather see through myself."

"Don't try to be unafraid. That is impossible. Rather, go ahead while being afraid. That is the entire secret for abolishing fear. The Supermind teaches us to have no self-concern at all. Whatever happens to you, act as though it happened to someone else."

"Don't look for someone in whom to believe. Believe in yourself. The only authentic authority is your own original nature."

"Don't try to live. Let yourself be lived."

"Entertainment disguised as spiritual instruction keeps many in the human jungle."

"Esoterically, slowing down is rushing forward."

"Every day that you attempt to see things as they are in truth Is a supremely successful day."

"Every virtue, every freedom exists because God exists."

"Everyone has imaginary ideas of himself as being this or that sort of person. And you can be sure that the images are highly complementary! But since they are purely imaginary, they are highly sensitive to assault by reality."

"Everyone possesses an internal self-correction system to which he must connect himself."

"Everyone is nothing but a collection of wild ideas. See them this way."

"Evil has no power except what we falsely give it."

"Everyone must concede that there is in existence something wiser than himself. Now there is a challenge, there is a challenge which few even investigate. We're going to do that now. Let's see what we're talking about. All troubled people, which is all people, must if they are going to be delivered from themselves, must make the concession that there is a force, an entity, a power that is higher than their own present nature."

"Everyone wishes to receive kindly treatment, but few people see how harshly they treat themselves by living without esoteric science."

"Examining this fact, how intelligent are you?"

"False goals and feelings of helplessness go together."

"Fear is caused by our insistent clinging to the false self. As we become conscious of this, our fears fade fast."

"Few people ever really realize the following fact: Insecurity is a mental condition, not a condition of finances, friendships or sex. The few who do realize this can start the interesting journey that ends beyond ordinary mental conditions, where true security resides."

"Fighting inner darkness in the wrong way is the same as submitting to it. Truth will show you how to truly fight for light."

"Foolishness is simply the nervous preference for wrong ideas, like a sailor anxiously hugging a broken compass."

"Freedom begins as we become conscious of it."

"First live in heaven, after which you will live easily on earth, which means you will not be in conflict when deciding between tea or milk for lunch."

"First I am one with my sickness. Then I stand apart and see my sickness. Then I am one with my wholeness."

"Genuine effort is success."

"God cannot care for the parts of you that cannot care for God."

"God is behind any and all efforts that a human being makes toward him."

"God himself has made it possible for you to live without the dark place and the pains that rush out and flood out and take you over. Your choice of wanting to see and work is essential to you if you want to get rid of your feeling of emptiness, of futility. You’ve lied to yourself and said, ‘I know what to do to get rid of the pain.’ You’ve never gotten rid of the pain and that’s evidence of self-deceit. You have to stop playing cruel tricks on yourself. So stop. Now."

"Happiness is not the acquisition of anything, it is the understanding of something."

"Have no fear to not know where you are going in life."

"Happiness is yours in the here and now. The painful states of anxiety and loneliness are abolished permanently. Financial affairs are not financial problems. You are at ease with yourself. You are not at the mercy of unfulfilled cravings. Confusion is replaced with clarity. There is a relieving answer to every tormenting question. You possess a True Self. Something can be done about every unhappy condition. While living in the world you can be inwardly detached from its sorrows to live with personal peace and sanity."

"Have you ever been nice to someone in order to keep him in your life, only to see him suddenly turn against you? Being nice to someone, pleasing him, has no influence whatever in changing his nature from bad to good. It is useless and unnecessary to try to change others, for nature-change must include self-change. You will never again waste your days or be betrayed if you remember that you have no real need for a harmful or sour man or woman."

"Have the daring to stop doing the things you really don’t want to do. Can you see them? Look closely. Can you observe the many things you do because you reluctantly feel you should or must? Watch closely. Examine every action and reaction. Do you act naturally or do you act because you feel compelled? If you feel compelled, stop. Compulsion is slavery. Example: Refuse to go along with the crowd."

"Hearing truth is not the same as understanding it."

"Have you noticed that you never succeed in convincing yourself that the problem is out there?"