Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

You cannot step into the same river twice.

I know now that there is no one thing that is true – it is all true.

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.

Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length.

It is hard to read a newspaper or watch a television newscast without encountering someone who has come up with a new ‚solution‘ to society’s ‚problems.‘

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

No one can say, ‚I have dropped out – I am no longer in the system.‘ When you’re in prison, you’re even closer to the system: you feel it more, and you might be in there for whatever reason. You don’t transform the system as an absolute thing.

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society. And I think talking in everyday terms and making sure people can understand it – I think that’s important.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

What someone else does or doesn’t do has no effect on me and what I do.

Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought.

But we try to pretend, you see, that the external world exists altogether independently of us.

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.

When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.

To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.

Meditation is not to avoid society; it is to look deep to have the kind of insight you need to take action. To think that it is just to sit down and enjoy the calm and peace, is wrong.

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.

As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.

Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.

Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.