'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'

'Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.'

'Imagination is more important than knowledge...'

'Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.'

'All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.'

'Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.'

'Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.'

'If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.'

'After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.'

'Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?'

'For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.'

'Our thoughts are free.'

'The absolute good is not a matter of opinion but of nature.'

'The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.'

'Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.'

'So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.'

'It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth.' - I Write What I Like, 1978.

'All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.'

'Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.'

'Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.'

'I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.'

'As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields. A vegetarian diet is the acid test ofhumanitarianism'

'All great achievements require time.'

'Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.'

'We do what we must, and call it by the best names.'

'In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.'

'Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.'

'A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.'

'Literature doesn't have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer. His Falstaff, for example, is very African in his appetite for life, his largeness of spirit. The characters of Turgenev are ghetto dwellers. Dickens' characters are Nigerians.'

'Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.

'The experience of God, or in any case the possibility of experiencing God, is innate.'

'No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.'

'The most important question in the world is, 'Why is the child crying?'

'The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.'

'People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.'

'Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness.'

'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.'

'Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.

'The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.'

'The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.'

'What the superior man seeks is in himself. What the mean man seeks is in others.'

'Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.'

'Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.'

'Hate the sin, love the sinner.'

'I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life'.

'I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.'

'My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.'

'Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.'

'As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you.'

'I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.'

'Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.'

'A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.'

'Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.'

'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.'

'My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.'

'Without forgiveness, there's no future.'

South Africa, so utterly improbably, is a beacon of hope in a dark and troubled world.'- "Truth and reconciliation", BBC Focus on Africa magazine, January-March 2000, p53.

'Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.'

'We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.'

'Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.'

'Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therin to be content.'

'Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.'

'A fully divine person is a fully-human being. A fully-human being is fully divine. Right now we are only half a human being. We do things with hesitation, we do things with ego. We don't believe that it is God who arranges all this for our enjoyment, for our experience. We separate sin and virtue. We make a big deal out of everything, and accordingly judge ourselves and other people. We suffer from our own limitations about what God should do. Understand? Actually God is inside us and we limit Hirm. We like to enjoy ourselves and play, but we don't know how. We just say to others, 'Ah! You shouldn't do that,' and to ourselves, "I shouldn't do that. I must not do this.'

'So why should I be vegetarian?' Yeah, I know. I am vegetarian because the God inside me wants it.'

'When we are pure in our deeds, speech and thoughts, even for a second, all the deities, the gods and the guardianangels will support us. At that moment, the entire universe belongs to us and supports us, and the throne is there forus to reign upon.'

'A Master is one who has the key for you to become a Master... to help you realize that you are also a Master and that you and God are also One.'

'Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.'

'All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.'

'Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.'

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.