"When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat."

"True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself."

"Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk."

"Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning."

"The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."

"All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience."

"If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having."

"What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their ability to act according to their beliefs."

"One of the reasons why so few of us ever act, instead of react, is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses."

"The man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to have artificial ones which will give him no pain or trouble."

"Life is constantly providing us with new funds, new resources, even when we are reduced to immobility. In life's ledger there is no such thing as frozen assets."

"We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests."

"No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe."

"Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything."

"One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life."

"In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance."

"Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously."

"The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way."

"And what is the potential man, after all? Is he not the sum of all that is human? Divine, in other words?"

"Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood."

"Example moves the world more than doctrine. The great exemplars are the poets of action, and it makes little difference whether they be forces for good or forces for evil."

"Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him."

"We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy."

"Chaos is the score upon which reality is written."

"I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen."

"It isn't the oceans which cut us off from the world - it's the American way of looking at things."

"Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines - these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm."

"What does it matter how one comes by the truth so long as one pounces upon it and lives by it?"

"There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy."

"We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate."

"The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary."

"Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing."

"If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms."

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."

"The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love."

"In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest."

"Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves."

"Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery."