Quotes from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself......”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may learn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk in water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“You have come to earth to entertain and to be entertained.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man's slavery”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“You do not have to struggle to reach God, but you do have to struggle to tear away the self-created veil that hides him from you”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Stillness is the altar of spirit.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The body is literally manufactured and sustained by mind.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The deeper the Self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“God is simple. Everything else is complex. Do not seek absolute values in the relative world of nature.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Continual intellectual study results in vanity and the false satisfaction of an undigested knowledge.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Seeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the fires of divine wisdom.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Yoga is, as I can readily believe, the perfect and appropriate method of fusing body and mind together so that they form a unity which is scarcely to be questioned. This unity creates a psychological disposition which makes possible intuitions that transcend consciousness.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Why be elated by material profit?” Father replied. “The one who pursues a goal of evenmindedness is neither jubilant with gain nor depressed by loss. He knows that man arrives penniless in this world, and departs without a single rupee.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The human mind is a spark of the almighty consciousness of God. I could show you that whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely would instantly come to pass.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Man's conscious state is an awareness of body and breath. His subconscious state, active in sleep, is associated with his mental, and temporary, separation from body and breath. His superconscious state is a freedom from the delusion that "existence" depends on body and breath. God lives without breath; the soul made in his image becomes conscious of itself, for the first time, only during the breathless state.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary halo of attractiveness to the object of desire.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“TO EVERY THING there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The reflection, the verisimilitude, of life that shines in the fleshly cells from the soul source is the only cause of man's attachment to his body; obviously he would not pay solicitous homage to a clod of clay. A human being falsely identifies himself with his physical form because the life currents from the soul are breath-conveyed into the flesh with such intense power that man mistakes the effect for a cause, and idolatrously imagines the body to have life of its own.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man’s slavery.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“He fitted the Vedic definition of a man of God: “Softer than the flower, where kindness is concerned; stronger than the thunder, where principles are at stake.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“If you don’t invite God to be your summer Guest, He won’t come in the winter of your life.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“You go often into the silence, but have you developed anubhava?” He was reminding me to love God more than meditation. “Do not mistake the technique for the Goal.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“Hay personas que tratan de ser altas cortando la cabeza a los demàs
Sri Yukteswar”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The ancient rishis discovered these laws of sound alliance between nature and man. Because nature is an objectification of Aum, the Primal Sound or Vibratory Word, man can obtain control over all natural manifestations through the use of certain mantras or chants.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The master never counseled slavish belief. ‘Words are only shells,’ he said. ‘Win conviction of God’s presence through your own joyous contact in meditation.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“A man will be beloved if, possessed with great power, he still does not make himself feared.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The soul having been often born, or, as the Hindus say, ‘traveling the path of existence through thousands of births’ ... there is nothing of which she has not gained the knowledge; no wonder that she is able to recollect... what formerly she knew.... For inquiry and learning is reminiscence all.”-Emerson.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

“The poet is intimate with truth, while the scientist approaches awkwardly.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, quote from Autobiography of a Yogi

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Popular quotes

“There is too much emotion in our own public life. The English could never be accused of that. They lock us up, release us and lock us up again according to what suits them at the time, with a bland detachment that, fortunately or unfortunately, is matched by an equally bland acceptance on our part. They act collectively, and so can afford detachment. We react individually, which weakens us. We haven’t yet acquired the collective instinct. The English send Kasim to prison. But it is Kasim who goes to prison. The prisoner in the zenana house is a man. But who is his jailer? The jailer is an idea. But in the prisoner the idea is embodied in a man. From his solitude the man reaches out to others. He writes to Sir George Malcolm. He writes to old Lady Manners. But he cannot reach them as people. They are protected from him by the collective instinct of their race. A reply comes, but it is not from them. It is from someone speaking for them. It has not been expedient for either of them to write. I understand in both cases why this should be. But to understand does not warm the heart.”
― Paul Scott, quote from The Day of the Scorpion

“Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from The Comedy of Errors

“A story is not like a road to follow … it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last time. It also has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter “A story is not like a road to follow … it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns....”
― Alice Munro, quote from Selected Stories

“Man. God. Roarke.
An interesting and flattering lineup.”
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“Well, then, if I admit I know who you are and really couldn’t care less will that assuage your damaged manhood enough that we can get past this and move on to something that ends with your giving me a sandwich? (Leta)”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon, quote from Upon the Midnight Clear

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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