Ram Dass

Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being. It’s not ‘I love you’ for this or that reason, not ‘I love you if you love me.’ It’s love for no reason, love without an object.

The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.

Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize in our own being, we are enough.

Once you have drunk from the water of unconditional love, no other well can satisfy your thirst. The pangs of separation may become so intense that seeking the affection of the Beloved becomes an obsession.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

Self-command is the main discipline.

No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

There is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

Fidelity is the sister of justice.

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Put an Irishman on the spit and you can always get another Irishman to turn him.

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race – the individual’s distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety’s or comfort’s sake, to stand well in his neighbor’s eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.

Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.