Quotations

Authority engenders power, and power always becomes centralized and therefore utterly corrupting.

Jiddu Krishnamurti (writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual issues)

The building of character is an ongoing challenge: the transmutation of selfishness into altruism, of personal interest into the warmth of compassion — a slow, patient alchemy.

Grace F. Knoche (Author, Theosophist and from 1971until 2006 leader of The Theosophical Society-Pasadena)

To have Brotherhood among the many, it is first necessary to realize Brotherhood among the few, and the basis of Brotherhood is the divinity in all men.

Robert Crosbie (Author, Theosophist and founder of the United Lodge of Theosophists)

If it fails, if the Theosophical Movement fails, we shall be responsible – you and I. The Theosophical Society is humanity’s hope, and this is no grandiloquent phrase, no vain boast. It is holy truth.

Gottfried de Purucker (Author, Theosophist and at one time leader of the Theosophical Society-Point Loma)

In the Constitution of the (Theosophical) Society there is no mention of the word ‘Theosophy’; and there is no official definition of what is Theosophy. So every member can say what Theosophy is or is not. It is very important that we realize that the work of the Society is to establish Universal Brotherhood, not to proclaim what is Theosophy.

Radha Burnier (International President of the Theosophical Society Adyar)

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.

Mother Theresa (Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship)

No one saves us but ourselves, no one can and no one may, we ourselves must walk the Path, teachers merely show the way.

Nancy Wilson Ross (American author who published many papers on Zen Buddhism)

Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything.

Mary Hemmingway (American journalist and the fourth wife of Ernest Hemmingway)

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered. It is something molded.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French writer and aviator)

The Masters of nature have written much that the art was not to be perfected constantly, on purpose, that the unwise might reach to it, but to the just and to the godly it becomes profitable both here and hereafter.

Arnaldus de Villa Nova (alchemist, astrologer and physician)