Quotes from Paul Carus

Every rebellion which is not in its own nature self-destructive, is an expression of the divine spirit.

There is no prophet that preaches the superpersonal God more plainly than mathematics...

Consisting of immortal Truth, you are immortal. The attainment of Truth is immortality, and to do the work of Truth is Nirvana.

When a tree is burning with fierce flames, how can the birds congregate therein? Truth cannot dwell where passion lives. He who does not know this, though he be a learned man and be praised by others as a sage, is beclouded with ignorance.

Ye that are slaves of the self and toil in its service from morn until night, ye that live in constant fear of birth, old age, sickness, and death, receive the good tidings that your cruel master exists not. Self is an error, an illusion, a dream. Open your eyes and awaken. See things as they are and ye will be comforted. He who is awake will no longer be afraid of nightmares. He who has recognized the nature of the rope that seemed to be a serpent will cease to tremble.

Blessed is he who has found enlightenment. He conquers, although he may be wounded; he is glorious and happy, although he may suffer; he is strong, although he may break down under the burden of his work; he is immortal, although he may die. The essence of his being is purity and goodness.

If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with fools. 43

There are ways from light into darkness and from darkness into light. There are ways, also, from the gloom into deeper darkness, and from the dawn into brighter light. The wise man will use the light he has to receive more fight. He will constantly advance in the knowledge of truth.32

Consisting of immortal Truth, you are immortal. The attainment of Truth is immortality, and to do the work of Truth is Nirvana.

Varunani, when conceived as goddess of beauty, is called Lakshmi or Shri;

When the fire of lust is gone out, then Nirv?na is gained; when the fires of hatred and delusion are gone out, then Nirv?na is gained; when the troubles of mind, arising from blind credulity, and all other evils have ceased, then Nirv?na is gained!

God is neither good nor bad, neither moral nor immoral, he is unmoral;

Every man's conception of God is a measure of his own stature. He pictures God according to his comprehension, and thus it is natural that every man has a different notion of God, every one's God being characteristic of his mental and moral caliber.

While the Bible declares that man is made in the image of God, anthropologists say that men make their gods after their own image: and the truth is that every God-conception is characteristic of the man who holds

Evil is personified in Mara, the Buddhist Devil, who represents temptation, sin, and death.

There is a deep truth in this conception of Mara as Varsavarti. It means that the selfishness of man is Satan and the actual satisfaction of selfishness is Hell.

According to the account in the second chapter of Genesis, Satan is the father of science, for he induced Eve to make Adam taste of the fruit of knowledge, and the

if we constructed a man consisting of virtues only, would not that fellow be the most unbearable bore in the world, wearisome beyond description?

gnostics, as a rule, represent the demiurge, i.e., the architect of the world, whom they identify with the Jewish Yahveh, as the father of all evil. They describe him as irascible, jealous, and

and contrast him with the highest God who had nothing to do with the creation. As the demiurge created the world, he has a right to it, but he was overcome through the death of Jesus. The demiurge thought to conquer Jesus when he let him die on the cross, but his triumph was preposterous, for through the passion and death of the innocent Jesus the victory of God was won and the salvation of mankind became established.

peculiarly interesting sect of gnostics is called the Ophites, or serpent worshippers. The demiurge (so they hold), on recognising the danger that might result from the emancipation of man

gnosis (i.e., knowledge or enlightenment), forbade him to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But the God, the highest Lord, the all-good and all-wise Deity, took compassion on man and sent the serpent to induce him to eat of the tree of knowledge so that he might escape the bondage of ignorance in which Yahveh, the demiurge, tried to hold him.

The old Greek saviours simply changed names and became Christian saints

The historical St. George, an archbishop of Alexandria and a follower of Arius, possesses no features whatever of the heroic dragon-slayer of the legend.