The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

It is only when we have renounced our preoccupation with "I," "me," "mine," that we can truly possess the world in which we live. Everything, provided that we regard nothing as property. And not only is everything ours; it is also everybody else's.

The Perennial Philosophy is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, tat tvam asi ('That art thou'); the Atman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of every human being, is to discover the fact for himself, to find out who he really is.

Men make use of their illnesses at least as much as they are made use of by them.

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

You've got to be hurt and upset; otherwise you can't think of the really good, penetrating, X-rayish phrases.