The more intense a spiritual leader's appetite for power, the more he is concerned to limit it to others.

What I know at sixty, I knew as well at twenty. Forty years of a long, superfluous, labor of verification.

For a long time—always, in fact—I have known that life here on earth is not what I needed and that I wasn’t able to deal with it; for this reason and for this reason alone, I have acquired a touch of spiritual pride, so that my existence seems to me the degradation and the erosion of a psalm.

If we had the courage to confront the doubts we timidly conceive about ourselves, none of us would utter an 'I' without shame.

Doubt works deep within you like a disease or, even more effectively, like a faith.

Good health is the best weapon against religion. Healthy bodies and healthy minds have never been shaken by religious fears.

Every word affords me pain. Yet how sweet it would be if I could hear what the flowers have to say about death!