Quintessential Quotations

Personal Path


Bliss

Follow your bliss.

Joseph Campbell
A Joseph Campbell Companion, ed. Diane K. Osbon

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Dreamers of the Day

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.

T. E. Lawrence
Introductory Chapter in Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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Duty to One's Profession

I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament hereunto.

Francis Bacon 1561-1626

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Fate and Free Will

The Sage said:

"Fate continues. But on no account abandon your own intentions.

" For if your plans accord with the supreme will, you will attain a plenitude of fulfillment for your heart.

Anwar-i-Suhaili
Quoted in The Mind Field by Robert Ornstein

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The Heart's Desire

It is hard to fight with one's heart's desire. Whatever it wishes to get, it purchases at the cost of soul.

Heraclitus
Quoted in the title essay of Mysticism and Logic, by Bertrand Russell

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The Stars Do Not Control Us

Occasionally I told astrologers to select my worst periods, according to planetary indications, and I would still accomplish whatever task I set myself. It is true that my success at such times has been preceded by extraordinary difficulties. But my conviction has always been justified: faith in divine protection, and right use of man's God-given will, are forces more formidable than are influences flowing from the heavens.

Paramahansa Yogananda
Autobiography of a Yogi

Know that there are two kinds of stars—the heavenly and the earthly, the stars of folly and the stars of wisdom. And just as there are two worlds, a Little World and a Great World, and just as the little one rules over the great one, so the stars of the microcosm rule over and govern the Stars of heaven. For never forget that God has created the planets and all other stars not to rule over and govern man, but to obey Him as do all other created things...

It is not true that the firmament exerts a compelling action upon man; on the contrary man himself acts upon the world more than he is influenced by it...

The stars are subject to the philosopher, they must follow him, and not he them. Only the man who is still animal is governed, mastered, compelled, and driven by the stars, so that he has no choice but to follow them—just as the thief cannot escape the gallows, the murderer the wheel, the fish the fisherman, the bird the snare, or the game the hunter. But the reason for all this is that such a man does not know himself and does not know how to use the energies hidden in him, nor does he know that he carries the stars within himself, that he is the microcosm, and thus carries in him the whole firmament with all its influences. Therefore he can rightly be abused as stupid and unwise, and must live in dire servitude to all that is earthly and mortal.

Paracelsus
Selected Writings, ed. Jolande Jacobi

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