A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one. Shri Ramakrishna used to say that, to pick out one thorn which has stuck into the foot, another thorn is requisitioned, and when the thorn is taken out, both are thrown away. So the bad tendencies are to be counteracted by the good ones, but after that, the good tendencies have also to be conquered.

There may be a million microbes of misery floating about us. Never mind! They dare not approach us, they have no power to get a hold on us, until the mind is weakened.

In nature alone are forms. That which is not of nature cannot have any forms, fine or gross. It must be formless.

Cowards never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we expect them to flee before us.

Our own selfishness makes us the most arrant cowards; our own selfishness is the great cause of fear and cowardice.

Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.

The sign of death is weakness.