Spiritual Quotes

The seeker says, “I do not know.”
That takes honesty.

The master says, “I do not know.”
That takes a mystic’s mind that knows things through non-knowing.

The disciple says, “I know.”
That takes ignorance, in the form of borrowed knowledge.

- Anthony de Mello

A man or woman of knowledge sweats and puffs like any ordinary person.

Yet the folly of their life is under control.

- Don Juan

Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside of them, not realizing on the contrary that the mind is itself the principal element of creation.

- Rabindranath Tagore

As a mountain is unshaken by the wind,
so the heart of a wise person is unmoved by all the changes on this earth.

- Buddha

We can walk through the darkest night with the radiant conviction that all things work together for the good.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

We are more curious about the meaning of dreams than about things we see when awake.

- Diogenes

If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.

- Bulgarian proverb

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.

- Shunryu Suzuki

I’m not young enough to know everything.

- J.M. Barrie

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Imagine if all the tumult of the body were to quiet down,
along with all our busy thoughts about earth, sea, and air;

if the very world would stop, and the mind cease thinking about itself,
go beyond itself, and be quite still;

if all the fantasies that appear in dreams and imagination would cease,
and there be no speech, no sign:

Imagine if all things that are perishable grew still – for if we listen they are saying,
“We did not make ourselves; he made us who abides forever” – imagine, then,
that they should say this and fall silent, listening to the very voice of him who made them
and not to that of his creation;

so that we should hear not his word through the tongues of men, nor the voice of angels,
nor the clouds’ thunder, nor any symbol, but the very Self which in these things we love,
and go beyond ourselves to attain a flash of that eternal wisdom which abides above all things:

And imagine if that moment were to go on and on,
leaving behind all other sights and sounds but this one vision
which ravishes and absorbs and fixes the beholder in joy;
so that the rest of eternal life were like that moment of illumination which leaves us breathless:

Would this not be what is bidden in the scripture, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord?

- Saint Augustine

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Easy is right.
Begin right and you are easy.
Continue easy and you are right.
The right way to go easy is to forget the right way,
and forget that the going is easy.

- Chuang Tzu

You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.

- G.K. Chesterton

It is not the same to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring.

- Spanish proverb

Finally out of reach – No bondage, no dependency.
How calm the ocean, Towering the void.

- Tessho

The peace which is the most important is that which comes to the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe.

- Black Elk

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences.

- Robert Green Ingersoll

My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes – most of which never happened.

- Mark Twain

When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough.
When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much.

- Fen-Yang

The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.

- Walker Percy

The way is not difficult; only there must be no wanting or not wanting.

- Chao-Chou

A hermit is one who renounces the world of fragments that he may enjoy the world wholly and without interruption.

- Kahlil Gibran

If you want to realize the truth, don’t be for or against.
The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.

- Seng Ts’an

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I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all being in the world.

- Lao Tzu

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The sage embraces things.
Ordinary men discriminate amongst them and parade their discriminations before others.

So I say; those who discriminate, fail to see.

- Chuang-Tzu

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How to get rid of the mind?

Is it the mind that wants to kill itself?

The mind cannot kill itself. So your business is to find the real nature of the mind. Then you will know that there is no mind.
When the Self is sought, the mind is nowhere.

Abiding in the Self, one need not worry about the mind.

- Ramana Maharshi

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The true way goes over a rope which is not stretched at any great height but just above the ground.
It seems more designed to make people stumble than to be walked upon.

- Franz Kafka

Computers are useless.
They can only give you answers.

- Pablo Picasso