The divine process of change manifests itself to our human understanding . . . as punishment, torment, death, and transfiguration.

A criminal becomes a popular figure because he unburdens in no small degree the consciences of his fellow man, for now they know once more where evil is to be found.

I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.

It is not for us . . . to send out missionaries to foreign peoples; it is our task to build up our own Western culture.

The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

The distinction between mind and body is an artificial dichotomy, a discrimination which is unquestionably based far more on the peculiarity of intellectual understanding than on the nature of things.