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Thought creates character.

Annie Besant

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
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
There is much, of course, in the exclusive claims of Christianity which make it hostile to other faiths.
ANNIE BESANT

Faith Religion
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
When we recognise that unity of all living things, then at once arises the question – how can we support this life of ours with least injury to the lives around us; how can we prevent our own life adding to the suffering of the world in which we live?
ANNIE BESANT

Injury Life Live Question Recognition Suffering Unity World
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
No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism.
ANNIE BESANT

Atheist Goodness Happiness Philosophy Religion World
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
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
Celibacy is not natural to men or to women; all bodily needs require their legitimate satisfaction, and celibacy is a disregard of natural law.
ANNIE BESANT

Body Law Man Nature Need Satisfaction
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
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
As the heat of the coal differs from the coal itself, so do memory, perception, judgment, emotion, and will, differ from the brain which is the instrument of thought.
ANNIE BESANT

Difference Emotion Judgement Memories Thinking
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
Muhammadan law in its relation to women, is a pattern to European law. Look back to the history of Islam, and you will find that women have often taken leading places – on the throne, in the battle-field, in politics, in literature, poetry, etc.
ANNIE BESANT

Battle God Law Leadership Literature Place Poetry Politics Relation Woman
Evil is only imperfection, that which is not complete, which is becoming, but has not yet found its end.
ANNIE BESANT

End Evil Imperfection
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
India is the mother of religion. In her are combined science and religion in perfect harmony, and that is the Hindu religion, and it is India that shall be again the spiritual mother of the world.
ANNIE BESANT

Combination Mom Religion Science Spiritual World
An accurate knowledge of the past of a country is necessary for everyone who would understand its present, and who desires to judge of its future.
ANNIE BESANT

Country Desire Future Judgement Knowledge Necessary Past Present Understand
Where love rules, laws are not needed.
ANNIE BESANT

Law Love Need Rule
In the light of reincarnation life changes its aspect, for it becomes the school of the eternal Man within us, who seeks therein his development, the Man that was and is and shall be, for whom the hour will never strike.
ANNIE BESANT

Change Development Forever Life Light Man Seek Time
Man peoples his current living space with a world of his own, crowded with the offspring of his fancies, desires, impulses, and passions.
ANNIE BESANT

Desire Live Man Passion People Space World
Theosophy has no code of morals, being itself the embodiment of the highest morality; it presents to its students the highest moral teachings of all religions, gathering the most fragrant blossoms from the gardens of the world-faiths.
ANNIE BESANT

Faith Garden Moral Present Religion Student Teaching World
Strange indeed would it be if all the space around us be empty, mere waste void, and the inhabitants of Earth the only forms in which intelligence could clothe itself.
ANNIE BESANT

Clothes Earth Herself Intelligence Space Strange
Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.
ANNIE BESANT

Believe Evidence Experience Limitation Logic Mad Ourselves Position
Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not prepared to act.
ANNIE BESANT

Act Better Preparation Silence Thinking Yourself

Thought creates character.

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Thought creates character.

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