“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.”

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?

Purification is but the cleaning of the lamp-glass which hides the Light.

Never yet has a God been defined in terms which were not palpably self-contradictory and absurd; never yet has a God been described so that a concept of Him was made possible to human thought.

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.

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.

The man of meditation is the man who wastes no time, scatters no energy, misses no opportunity.

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.

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.

Death cannot touch the higher consciousness of man it can only separate those who love each other so far as their lower vehicles are concerned; the man living on earth, blinded by matter, feels separated from those who have passed onwards, but there is no such thing as Death at all.

Thought creates character.

No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism.

The essence of religion is the knowledge of God which is eternal life. That and nothing less than that is religion. Everything else is on the surface, is superfluous save for the needs of men.

What, after all, is the object of education? To train the body in health, vigor and grace, so that it may express the emotions in beauty and the mind with accuracy and strength.

Celibacy is not natural to men or to women; all bodily needs require their legitimate satisfaction, and celibacy is a disregard of natural law.

Evil is only imperfection, that which is not complete, which is becoming, but has not yet found its end.

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

The art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with reality, and the reason for it is that most civilized people are out of touch with reality.

It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime.

I think that in the essence of human civilization, we have the desire to become rich without limit, by taking the lives of other creatures.

I think that in the essence of human civilization, we have the desire to become rich without limit, by taking the lives of other creatures.

Despite all the achievements of civilisation, the human being is still one of the most vulnerable creatures on earth.

The diseases that we civilized people labor under most are melancholy and pessimism.

The Russian people and Russian culture are the linchpin, the glue that binds together this unique civilization.

I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.