Every attempt to solve the laws of causation, time, and space would be futile, because the very attempt would have to be made by taking for granted the existence of these three.

Renunciation is the very basis upon which ethics stands. There never was an ethical code preached which had not renunciation for its basis.

We see many persons talking the most wonderfully fine things about charity and about equality and the rights of other people and all that, but it is only in theory. I was so fortunate as to find one who was able to carry theory into practice. He had the most wonderful faculty of carrying everything into practice which he thought was right.

Each man must begin where he stands, must learn how to control the things that are nearest to him.

The world cares little for principles. They care for persons.

We are all born idolaters, and idolatry is good, because it is in the nature of man. Who can get beyond it? Only the perfect man, the God-man. The rest are all idolaters. So long as we see this universe before us, with its forms and shapes, we are all idolaters. This is a gigantic symbol we are worshipping. He who says he is the body is a born idolater.

The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life within. If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy.