The social, as opposed to the mystical function of a mythology, 

is not to open the mind, but to enclose it: 

to bind a local people together in mutual support 

by offering images that awaken the heart 

to recognitions of commonality, 

without allowing these to escape the monadic compound.

The seat of the soul is there,

where the outer and inner worlds meet

The life of a mythology derives from 

the vitality of is symbols as metaphors 

delivering, not simply the idea, 

but a sense of actual participation 

in such a realisation of transcendence, infinity and abundance.

The best lack all conviction, 

while the worst

are full of passionate intensity

Individuation is but an appearance in a field of space and time,

these being the conditioning forms

through which my cognitive faculties

apprehend their objects.

They exist, that is to say,

only in my mental representation.

My own true inner being 

actually exists

in every living creature

as truly and immediately

as known to my consciousness

only in myself.

The progress of science is strewn, 

like an ancient desert trail, 

with the bleached skeleton of discarded theories 

which once seemed to possess eternal life.

Like everything metaphysical 

the harmony between thought and reality 

is to be found in the grammar of the language.

Not ignorance, 

but ignorance of ignorance, 

is the death of knowledge.

Hide our ignorance as we will, 

an evening of wine soon reveals it.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, 

the darkness must be present.

Reasoning draws a conclusion, 

but does not make the conclusion certain, 

unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.

Let us hold our discussion together in our own persons, 

making trial of the truth and of ourselves.

Men create the gods in their own image.

There is no sin but ignorance.

Life is one long struggle in the dark.

The conventional view 

serves to protect us 

from the painful job 

of thinking.

To be wholly devoted 

to some intellectual exercise 

is to have succeeded in life.

Friends are as companions on a journey, 

who ought to aid each other 

to persevere in the road to a happier life.

It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes 

and not in the hand, 

for the hands execute, 

but the eye judges.

A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.

Thought is only a flash between two long nights, 

but this flash is everything.

True enjoyment comes 

from activity of the mind 

and exercise of the body; 

the two are ever united.

If nature were not beautiful, 

it would not be worth knowing, 

and if nature were not worth knowing, 

life would not be worth living.

Let each man exercise the art he knows.

The more elaborate our means of communication, 

the less we communicate.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. 

So is a lot.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

I am always doing that which I cannot do, 

in order that I may learn how to do it.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, 

so do our minutes, 

hasten to their end.

Peace is not an absence of war, 

it is a virtue, a state of mind, 

a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

All of life 

in its complexity and beauty 

is forever minted 

in the gold of words.

We have found 

that where science has progressed the farthest, 

the mind has but regained from nature 

that which the mind put into nature.

A picture is a poem without words.

Vision is the art of seeing 

what is invisible to others.

The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, 

who obeys any authority, 

but that of reason.

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. 

It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. 

The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. 

The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. 

It is the measles of mankind.

Reason is the natural order of truth; 

but imagination is the organ of meaning.

Come forth into the light of things, 

let nature be your teacher.

Our species needs, 

and deserves, 

a citizenry with minds wide awake 

and a basic understanding 

of how the world works.

The eye sees 

what it brings the power to see.

Wherever you go, 

go with all your heart.

The past is what you remember, 

imagine you remember, 

convince yourself you remember, 

or pretend you remember.

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

The greater danger for most of us lies 

not in setting our aim too high 

and falling short; 

but in setting our aim too low, 

and achieving our mark.

He who cannot do what he wants,

let him want what he can do.

Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole.

Beauty, 

whether moral or natural, 

is felt, more properly 

than perceived.

What is it that really makes us, us? 

It's our collective intelligence. 

It's our ability to write things down, 

our language and our consciousness.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself 

is when you are forced to be in a crowd.