Fear is what prevents the flowering of the mind.

A mind that is afraid withers away; it cannot function properly.

In obedience there is always fear, and fear darkens the mind.

Why do you want to read others' books when there is the book of yourself?

We have so committed ourselves in different ways that we have hardly any time for self-reflection, to observe, to study.

It does not in the least concern me whether I shall have at the end of my life thirty people who understand or three hundred. I am like an artist who paints a picture because he must, otherwise he is unhappy - not unhappy, but he must obey that creative impulse.

Without total freedom, every perception, every objective regard, is twisted. It is only the man who is totally free that can look and understand immediately. Freedom implies really, doesn't it, the total emptying of the mind. To completely empty the whole content of the mind — that is real freedom.