“Self-knowledge is the great power by which we comprehend and control our lives”

Do not mistake desire for love. Desire leaves home in a frantic search for one gratification after another. Love is at home with itself.

There exists a special self which takes every event as if it were the very thing you wanted to happen. That self is the Supermind, which is never upset by anything. Your goal is to nourish it into greater strength. Then, every step is sunlit.

You know what is right. Deep down, you know. The battle between your true wisdom and the counterfeit wisdom of society is what causes frustration. Refuse to compromise with what you know is right-with what is right for you.

The genuinely spiritual person is one who has lost all desire to be anyone but exactly who he is, without labels and without apologies. He is what he is and that’s all there’s is to it. Such a man is undivided, uncomplicated and contented.

We cannot be free of nagging desires through suppression. This is like trying to keep a rubber boat beneath the water. But we remove compulsive desires altogether by understanding their nature.

Freedom begins as we become conscious of it.

Interpretation blocks reception while masquerading as reception. Rightness does not need interpretation; it requires simple acceptance and nothing else.

All heartache is caused by wrong viewpoints.

The outer storm ceases the moment the inner storm ends, for they are the same storm.

Just as surely as distress must follow self-deceit, healing must follow self-honesty.

An obvious fact about negative feelings is often overlooked. They are caused by us, not by exterior happenings. An outside event presents the challenge, but we react to it. So we must attend to the way we take things, not to the things themselves.

Aloneness is a wise teacher. Kierkegaard remarked that one sign of spiritual maturity was the ability to be comfortable when alone.

Society is like a crowd in carnival costumes with everyone fearful that others will see through his disguise.

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

The world consists of imaginary people, claiming imaginary virtues and suffering from imaginary happiness.

All we have to do is to receive what we are given…We are given the naturalness to love someone, to be calm in crisis, to ignore self-defeating suggestions, to be pleasant, forgiving, tender, helpful, unworried, brave, energetic.

Take away the self-conceited, and there will be elbowroom in the world.

There was a time when intellectual meant someone who uses reason and intellect.

So put a quarter in your ass Cuz ya played ya’self

To understand ourself, we must understand our “selves,” or the parts of us that motivate our thoughts, decisions, and behaviors.

The more self-centered and egotistical a guy is, the better ballplayer he’s going to be.

Many leadership problems are driven by low self-awareness.

There is in the darkness a unity, if you will, that cannot be achieved in any other environment, a blending of self with what the self perceives, and exquisite mystical experience.

War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination.