What follows is a long series of the most meaningful quotes that I have amassed over the years. Divine wisdom communicated through speech, pure and simple. I do not necessarily endorse all of the beliefs of the people mentioned below, and this list is by no means definitive. I will continue to add more as I find them.
“All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. Seeing yourself in others, then who can you hurt? What harm can you do?” – Siddhartha, Dhammapada
“And whatsoever ye do unto the cast of these my children, ye do it unto me. For I am in them and they are in me. Yea, I am in all creatures and all creatures are in me. In all their joys I rejoice, and in all their afflictions I am afflicted. Wherefore I say unto you: Be ye kind to one another, and to all the creatures of God.” – Jesus, Gospel of the Holy Twelve
“He who has come to know the world has found a corpse, and he who has found a corpse, the world is not worthy of him” – Jesus, Gospel of Thomas
“This world is a prison for the believer, and a paradise for the disbeliever” – Mohammed, Sahih Muslim
“He is God the One, God the eternal. He neither begets, nor is He begotten. And there is none like Him” – Mohammed, Surah Al-Ikhlas
“So much beauty, promise, gentleness; so much to presence and feel of the numinous. But even more the sadness of tragedy and of sorrow; the suffering inflicted by so many for so long, and still without any ending in sight. And why do so many of those fragile ones – the good, sensitive, ones who for whatever reason could find no answers, no hope, no way to end their inner torment and pain – die by their own hand, month after month, year upon year, decade upon decade, century upon century, when those who cause so much suffering continue, and mostly enjoy their life? There is no fairness, here; no large movement toward a better way. Only the perpetuation of suffering, since each person, blankly-born, struggles as others have struggled millennia upon millennia, learning very little through the beauty of Art, music, literature, music, education, the suffering of the past. Such a waste; such a sad un-necessity.” – David Myatt, Pathei Mathos
“There is only one way and that is your way. There is only one salvation and that is your salvation. Why are you looking for help? Do you believe help will come from outside? What is to come will be created in you and from you. Hence look into yourself. Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.” – Carl Jung, The Red Book
“In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know what is really going to happen. Could we foresee it, there are times when children might seem like innocent prisoners, condemned, not to death, but to life, and as yet all unconscious of what their sentence means.” – Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism
“See I, a single Mani, have come to the world to preach the Word of God therein, and in it do the good Will that is entrusted to me; yet have I in living truth done the work of the Mystery I preach. … And see, the world resists me in every way, heaping calumnies upon me through its Sects. They give me therein no place to speak, even while I am (only) a single Mani. … When I, a single Mani, came to the world, all the world’s cities were stirred and hesitated, they would not accept me unless I (first) subdued their rebellion. … I, a single Mani, came into the world and spoke; all the powers of the world have been moved and confusion has arisen before me. If now two Manis had come to the world, where would they be able to bear them, or which land would be able to welcome them?” – Mani, Kephalaia