Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.

Attachment comes only where we expect a return.

Well has it been said that man is the only animal that naturally looks upwards; every other animal naturally looks down.

Where no bondage is, there is no cause and effect.

This is a world of good and evil. Wherever there is good, evil follows, but beyond and behind all these manifestations, all these contradictions, the Vedanta finds out that Unity. It says, "Give up what is evil and give up what is good." What remains then? Behind good and evil stands something which is yours, the real you, beyond every evil, and beyond every good too, and it is that which is manifesting itself as good and bad. Know that first, and then and then alone you will be a true optimist, and not before; for then you will be able to control everything.

One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots.

Never forget that a man is made great and perfect as much by his faults as by his virtues. So we must not seek to rob a nation of its character, even if it could be proved that the character was all faults.