The human soul is divine.
Every truth has its origin in God. Its being expressed in the human being does not show that it comes from the human being, only that the human being has the property of being transparent enough to express it.
— Pascal
When rainwater flows through the gutters, it seems that it flows out of them, when in reality it falls from the sky. It is the same with the sacred teachings communicated to us by holy people. It seems that they come from them, but in reality they come from God.
— Ramakrishna
According to Laozi, to think that one’s own spiritual powers are independent of heavenly power is to believe that the bellows is not a device that merely lets air pass through it, but an independent source of air, and that it would be capable of producing and blowing air in a vacuum.
I feel especially strongly that in everything a human being does or can do that is beautiful, great and good, he is only an instrument of something or someone higher than him. This feeling is faith. A believer takes part with a tremor of sacred joy in these miracles that are being performed through him and not from him, of which he is the scene. He yields his will to them, trying to respectfully efface himself so as to distort as little as possible the higher work of the power that is making a momentary use of him to perform its task. He annihilates his personality and his self; he feels that his self must disappear when the Holy Spirit speaks, when God acts. This is what a prophet feels when he hears the call, what a young mother feels when the child moves within her womb. As long as we are conscious of the self, we are limited, selfish, imprisoned; but when we are in harmony with the life of the world, when we respond to the voice of God, the self disappears.
— Amiel
If we were to renounce for a moment our little self, we would have no bad thoughts, we would become clear glass, reflecting light—what would we not reflect! The whole universe would unfold in radiant splendor around us.
— Thoreau
True wisdom teaches us that the foundations of a person’s thoughts live in his humbler brothers and that the qualities that a scientist displays in making his deepest discoveries are exactly the same as those employed by ordinary people in their everyday work.
The true understanding of great individuals consists in the fact that they are only examples and manifestations of our common nature, showing that which is inherent in all souls, despite its being revealed only in a few. The light emanating from them is nothing but a faint revelation of the force that lies hidden in every human being. They are not wonders or miracles, they are a natural development of the human soul.
— From “The World’s Advance Thought”
The human being’s true task on earth is to maintain his being in harmony with the eternal; only then can the almighty power of love and reason flow through him, as through a clear channel.
— From “The World’s Advance Thought”
Life is given to us as a child is given to a nanny: in order to raise him. This is what the Parable of the Talents speaks of (Matthew 25:14–30).
Keep yourself free from evil so that the power of God may flow through you. The flow of God’s power is a great blessing.
