The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.

I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me.

Go as far as you can. Go further than you can!

God sends rain, but He also sends hoods; and when the rain grows heavier, He sends a cave.

This book was not written because I wanted to offer a supreme model to the man who struggles; I wanted to show him that he must not fear pain, temptation or death - because all three can be conquered, all three have already been conquered. Christ suffered pain, and since then pain has been sanctified. Temptation fought until the very last moment to lead him astray, and Temptation was defeated. Christ died on the Cross, and at that instant death was vanquished forever.

It was certainly not this mummified and outrageously painted old woman he was seeing before him, but the entire "female species," as it was his custom to call women. The individual disappeared, the features were obliterated, whether young or senile, beautiful or ugly - those were mere unimportant variations. Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite.