The word 'happiness' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced and contrasted and compared to sadness. In comparing how an experience could have been worse we develop gratitude and happiness, while if we compare it how it could have been better we develop bitterness and sadness.

The growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement.

Every living soul has different talents, different desires, different faculties. Be yourself, for even if you deceive the entire world, you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.

...anyone who attempts to do both, to adjust to his group and at the same time pursue his individual goal, becomes neurotic.

If you are unhappy, you are too high up in your mind.

My own understanding is the sole treasure I possess, and the greatest. Though infinitely small and fragile in comparison with the powers of darkness, it is still a light, my only light.

Science has destroyed even the refuge of the inner life. What was once a sheltering haven has become a place of terror