Great Throughts Treasury

"Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us."

"To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead as to its own. Such an one can do no deed however small but it is clothed with something of God’s power and authority."

"Twenty-four scholars got together and tried to say what God is and were unable to do it… God is something that must transcend being. Anything which has being, date and location does not belong to God, for he is above them all and although he is in all creatures, yet he is more than all of them."

"When I pray for something, I do not pray; when I pray for nothing I really pray… To pray for anything except God might be called idolatry or injustice."

"Why I pray God to rid me of God is because conditionless being is above God and above distinction."

"What is truth? Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep to the truth and let God go."

"If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature - even a caterpillar - I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature."

"Only the hand that erases can write the true thing."

"Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness."

"Be willing to be a beginner every single morning."

"Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there."

"I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God."

"When you are thwarted, it is your own attitude that is out of order. Why I pray God to rid me of God is because conditionless being is above God and above distinction."

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."

"Love is as strong as death, as hard as Hell. Death separates the soul from the body, but love separates all things from the soul."

"Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage."

"Wisdom consists in doing the next think you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it."

"Some people prefer solitude. They say their peace of mind depends on this. Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are. Your surroundings don't matter. God is with you everywhere -- in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you. God is not distracted by a multitude of things. Nor can we be."

"Nobody at any time is cut off from God."

"One must learn an inner solitude, wherever one may be."

"All God wants of man is a peaceful heart."

"Whoever possesses God in their being has Him in a divine manner, and He shines out to them in all things; for them all things taste of God and in all things it is God's image that they see."

"If anyone went on for a thousand years asking of life: 'Why are you living?' life, if it could answer, would only say, 'I live so that I may live.' That is because life lives out of its own ground and springs from its own source, and so it lives without asking why it is itself living."

"God is at home. We are in the far country."

"One must not always think so much about what one should do, but rather what one should be. Our works do not ennoble us; but we must ennoble our works."

"A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there."

"Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion."

"God is greater than God."

"I am what I wanted and I want what I am."

"We must come into a transformed knowing, an unknowing which comes not from ignorance but from knowledge."

"We are all meant to be mothers of God...for God is always needing to be born."

"True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions are found."

"The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake."

"No-one knows what the soul is.. But what we do know is, the soul is where God works compassion."

"God is at home; it is we who have gone for a walk."

"You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion."

"Every creature is a word of God."

"He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment."

"There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence."

"Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us"

"To be full of things is to be empty of God. To be empty of things is to be full of God."

"What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action."

"If you seek the kernel, then you must break the shell. An likewise, if you would know the reality of Nature, you must destroy the appearance, and the farther you go beyond the appearance, the nearer you will be to the essence."

"The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great."

"One person who has mastered life is better than a thousand persons who have mastered only the contents of books, but no one can get anything out of life without God."

"Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go."

"Only those who have dared to let go can dare to reenter."

"People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works."

"The most powerful prayer, one wellnigh omnipotent, and the worthiest work of all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The quieter it is the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is. To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own."

"The everlasting and paternal wisdom saith, "Whoso heareth Me is not ashamed." If he is ashamed of anything he is ashamed of being ashamed. Whoso worketh in Me sineth not. Whoso confesseth Me and feareth Me, shall have eternal life. Whoso will hear the wisdom of the Father must dwell deep, and abide at home, and be at unity with himself."