“The only work that spiritually purifies us is that which is done without personal motives.”

To doubt the experience is to discourage it. Let it be developed, see what is in it.

Sit in meditation ! But do not think ! Look only at your mind ! You will see thoughts coming into it ! Before they can enter, throw these away from your mind till your mind is capable of entire silence.

All existence is a manifestation of God.

She saw the myriad gods, and beyond God his own ineffable eternity; she saw that there were ranges of life beyond our present life, ranges of mind beyond our present mind and above these she saw the splendors of the spirit.

Trust the divine power, and she will free the godlike elements in you and shape all into an expression of divine nature.

The spiritual path is one of falling on your face, getting up, brushing yourself off, turning and looking sheepishly at God and then taking the next step.

The yogin becomes aware in part of the action of the supramental power organizing the lower vehicle (ādhāra). A part of it remains behind the veil and prepares itself.

One mighty deed can change the course of things; a lonely thought becomes omnipotent.

My God is love and sweetly suffers all.

Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism.

India of the ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples.

Rather hang thyself than belong to the horde of successful imitators.

By your stumbling, the world is perfected.

But few are those who tread the sunlit path; Only the pure in soul can walk in light.

Remember that you are at an exceptional hour in a unique epoch, that you have this great happiness, this invaluable privilege, of being present at the birth of a new world.

There is nothing small in God’s eyes; let there be nothing small in thine

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

Now, however, an attack may come without warning from an unknown enemy, to achieve unclear motives.

Ultimately we must concern ourselves with pulling out by its roots the decadence that controls our culture, the profit motive that controls our culture.

To be in theater you have to be a kind of psychologist, for you’re always trying to understand character and motives.

One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. and sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me.

The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue.

The true motives of our actions, like the real pipes of an organ, are usually concealed; but the gilded and hollow pretext is pompously placed in the front for show.

One desire has been the ruling passion of my life.