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Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to building up of another.

Annie Besant

Death consists, indeed, in a repeated process of unrobing, or unsheathing. The immortal part of man shakes off from itself, one after the other, its outer casings, and – as the snake from its skin, the butterfly from its chrysalis – emerges from one after another, passing into a higher state of consciousness.
ANNIE BESANT

Death Immortal Man Repeat Skin
The soul grows by reincarnation in bodies provided by nature, more complex, more powerful, as the soul unfolds greater and greater faculties. And so the soul climbs upward into the light eternal. And there is no fear for any child of man, for inevitably he climbs towards God.
ANNIE BESANT

Ability Body Born Children God Greatness Growth Light Man Nature Soul
No durable things are built on violent passion. Nature grows her plants in silence and in darkness, and only when they have become strong do they put their heads above the ground.
ANNIE BESANT

Build Darkness Growth Nature Passion Plant Silence Strong Violence
Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to building up of another.
ANNIE BESANT

Build Death Destruction Life Material
Someone ought to do it, but why should I? Someone ought to do it, so why not I? Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution.
ANNIE BESANT

Evolution Lie Moral Sentence Work
Nothing but an imperious intellectual and moral necessity can drive into doubt a religious mind, for it is as though an earthquake shook the foundations of the soul, and the very being quivers and sways under the shock.
ANNIE BESANT

Foundation Intellectual Moral Necessary Soul
When a man, a woman, see their little daily tasks as integral portions of the one great work, they are no longer drudges but co-workers with God.
ANNIE BESANT

God Greatness Man Woman Work
Theosophy tries to bridge the gulf between Buddhism and Christianity by pointing to the fundamental spiritual truths on which both religions are built, and by winning people to regard the Buddha and the Christ as fellow-laborers, and not as rivals.
ANNIE BESANT

Fundamental People Religion Spiritual Truth Try Win
Beauty is no dead thing. It is the manifestation of God in nature. There is not one object in nature untouched by man that is not beautiful, for God’s manifestation is beauty. It shines through all His works, and not only in those that may give pleasure to man.
ANNIE BESANT

Beautiful Death God Happiness Himself Man Nature Shine Touch Work
Those who can serve best, those who help most, those who sacrifice most, those are the people who will be loved in life and honoured in death, when all questions of colour are swept away and when in a free country free citizens shall meet on equal grounds.
ANNIE BESANT

Best Citizenship Color Country Death Equality Freedom Help Honor Life Love Question Respect Sacrifice Service
Thought creates character.
ANNIE BESANT

Character Creation One Liner Thinking
For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most.
ANNIE BESANT

Evil Greatness Hate Leadership Woman
The true basis of morality is utility; that is, the adaptation of our actions to the promotion of the general welfare and happiness; the endeavour so to rule our lives that we may serve and bless mankind.
ANNIE BESANT

Action Blessing Kind Live Man Moral Ourselves Rule True
Clairvoyants can see flashes of colour, constantly changing, in the aura that surrounds every person: each thought, each feeling, thus translating itself in the astral world, visible to the astral sight.
ANNIE BESANT

Change Color Feeling See Thinking World
The misery we inflict on sentient beings slackens our human evolution.
ANNIE BESANT

Evolution Human Misery Ourselves
Men are at every stage of evolution, from the most barbarous to the most developed; men are found of lofty intelligence, but also of the most unevolved mentality; in one place there is a highly developed and complex civilisation, in another a crude and simple polity.
ANNIE BESANT

Civilization Development Evolution Intelligence Man Mental Place Simplicity
All men die. You may say: ‘Is that encouraging?’ Surely yes, for when a man dies, his blunders, which are of the form, all die with him, but the things in him that are part of the life never die, although the form be broken.
ANNIE BESANT

Break Death Encouragement Life Man Mistake Spiritual
The world, with all its beauty, its happiness and suffering, its joys and pains, is planned with the utmost ingenuity, in order that the powers of the Self may be shown forth in manifestation.
ANNIE BESANT

Beautiful Happiness Power Suffering World
Knowledge is essential to conquest; only according to our ignorance are we helpless. Thought creates character. Character can dominate conditions. Will creates circumstances and environment.
ANNIE BESANT

Character Creation Domination Environment Help Ignorance Knowledge
A common religion is not possible for India, but a recognition of a common basis for all religions, and the growth of a liberal, tolerant spirit in religious matters, are possible.
ANNIE BESANT

Growth Liberty Possible Recognition Religion Spirit Tolerance
There is a charm in making a stew, to the unaccustomed cook, from the excitement of wondering what the result will be, and whether any flavour save that of onions will survive the competition in the mixture.
ANNIE BESANT

Charm Competition Excitement Result Survive Wonder
Every person, every race, every nation, has its own particular keynote which it brings to the general chord of life and of humanity.
ANNIE BESANT

Humanity Life Nation Person Race
The highest Hindu intellectual training was based on the practice of yoga, and produced, as its fruit, those marvellous philosophical systems, the six Darshanas and the Brahma Sutras, which are still the delight of scholars and the inspiration of occultists and mystics.
ANNIE BESANT

Fruit Inspirational Intellectual Training Philosophy Practice Production Religious Spiritual System
Belief in karma ought to make the life pure, strong, serene and glad. Only our own deeds can hinder us; only our own will can fetter us. Once let men recognize this truth, and the hour of their liberation has struck. Nature cannot enslave the soul that by wisdom has gained power and uses both in love.
ANNIE BESANT

Belief Happiness Karma Liberty Life Love Man Nature Peace Power Purity Recognition Soul Strong Truth Wisdom
I often think that woman is more free in Islam than in Christianity. Woman is more protected by Islam than by the faith which preaches monogamy. In AI Quran the law about woman is juster and more liberal.
ANNIE BESANT

Freedom Justice Law Liberty Protection Religious Right Woman
Meditation means this opening out of the soul to the Divine and letting the Divine shine in without obstruction from the personal self. Therefore it means renunciation. It means throwing away everything that one has, and waiting empty for the light to come in.
ANNIE BESANT

Deep Difference Divine Empty Light Meditation Soul Spiritual Wait
Purification is but the cleaning of the lamp-glass which hides the Light.
ANNIE BESANT

Hide Light Purity

Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to building up of another.

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Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to building up of another.

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