“Desire is when you do what you want, will is when you can do what youdo not want.”

“Everything 'happens'. Peoplecan 'do' nothing. From the time we areborn to the time we die things happen, happen, happen, and we think weare doing. This is our normal state in life, and even the sma...”

“Many things are mechanical and should remain mechanical. But mechanical thoughts, mechanical feelingsthat is what has to be studied and can and should be changed. Mechanical thinking is not worth a...”

“Q. Surely it is easier to be objective about other people than aboutoneself?A. No, it is more difficult. If you become objective to yourself you cansee other people objectively, but not before, bec...”

“If one does not develop, one goes down. In life, in ordinary conditions everything goes down, or one capacity may develop at the expense of another.”

“Attaining consciousness is connected with the gradual liberation from mechanicalness, for man is fully and completely under mechanical laws.”

“One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.”

“Everybody has a home team: Its the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. Its the people who, near or far, know everything thats wrong with you and love you an...”

“The more you condemn yourself for thinking or feeling a certain way, the more you feel stuck within your own body and mind.. What if you went the other way and embraced it so totally that it was as...”

“The world outside is a strange, but relentless mirror.”

“...an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable.”

“...when dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases. ”

“I have little use for religion as it is practiced, or for astrology, or for belief in witchcraft or omens of good or ill-luck. I think they all stem from some insufficiency in mens minds, perhaps f...”

“It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent.”

“So if you can look at all things without allowing pleasure to creep in - at a face, a bird, the colour of a sari, the beauty of a sheet of water shimmering in the sun, or anything that gives deligh...”