An object is great in proportion to its power of resistance to time and the elements. That is why we think the pyramids are great. But see, the desert is greater than the pyramids, and the sea is greater than the desert, and the heavens are greater than the sea.

Like matter itself, an ideal is mutable, but indestructible. It does not die; it only undergoes a change.

If I were capable of assisting someone, I would do it in a manner that would cause the person seeking assistance to work, so he assists himself.

I am the East. I have philosophies, I have religions, who would exchange them for airplanes?

If I had in me something that inspires people towards the good and raises them one step on the ladder of mental and spiritual progress, I want to show it by example, indication, and deduction, not by preaching, threatening, and conspiring.

Virtue, once bragged about, once you pride yourself upon it, ceases to be such.

The West for me means ambition, the East contentment. My heart is ever in one, my soul in the other.