Alchemy Quotes

“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.”
― William H. Gass, A Temple of Texts

“An old alchemist gave the following consolation to one of his disciples: “No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you.”
― Carl Jung

“Mining lead is alchemically injecting suffering and aggression into the veins of tomorrow.”
― Matthew Edward Hall, San Mateo: Proof of The Divine

“Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, 'atheism' is a term that should not even exist. No one needs to identify himself as a 'non-astrologer' or a 'non-alchemist.' We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.”
― Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation

“We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun.
We are not afraid of the darkness.
We trust that the moon shall guide us.
We are determining the future at this very moment.
We know that the heart is the philosopher's stone.
Our music is our alchemy.”
― Saul Williams

“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked. “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”
― Paulo Coehlo

“There is no quarrel between science and spirituality. I often hear people of science trying to use it to prove the nonexistence of the spiritual, but I simply can't see a chasm in between the two. What is spiritual produces what is scientific and when science is used to disprove the spiritual, it's always done with the intent to do so; a personal contempt. As a result, scientists today only prove their inferiority to the great founding fathers of the sciences who were practitioners of alchemy. Today's science is washed-out and scrubbed-down and robbed of everything mystical and spiritual, a knowledge born of contempt and discontent. Or perhaps, there are a few who wish to keep those secrets to themselves and serve everyone else up with a tasteless version of science and the idiots of today blindly follow their equally blind leaders.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“It’s said that the shuffling of the cards is the earth, and the pattering of the cards is the rain, and the beating of the cards is the wind, and the pointing of the cards is the fire. That’s of the four suits. But the Greater Trumps, it’s said, are the meaning of all process and the measure of the everlasting dance.”
― Charles Williams

“Medicine rests upon four pillars—philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, and ethics. The first pillar is the philosophical knowledge of earth and water; the second, astronomy, supplies its full understanding of that which is of fiery and airy nature; the third is an adequate explanation of the properties of all the four elements—that is to say, of the whole cosmos—and an introduction into the art of their transformations; and finally, the fourth shows the physician those virtues which must stay with him up until his death, and it should support and complete the three other pillars.”
― Paracelsus, Paracelsus: Selected Writings

“He wishes he were a skilled poet, it would fit his chosen image perfectly; the poor, tragic, tortured artiste. But he has no talent for words, neither for paints nor music; his uselessness is tremendously total.”
― Curtis Ackie, Goldfish Tears

“A photograph is a universe of dots. The grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. Once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide into the smallest event. This is what technology does. It peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rumbling past. It makes reality come true.”
― Don DeLillo, Underworld

“Photography is essentially an act of recognition by street photographers, not an act of invention. Photographers might respond to an old man’s face, or an Arbus freak, or the way light hits a building—and then they move on. Whereas in all the other art forms, take William Blake, everything that came to that paper never existed before. It’s the idea of alchemy, of making something from nothing.”
― Duane Michals

“For the alchemist the one primarily in need of redemption is not man, but the deity who is lost and sleeping in matter. Only as a secondary consideration does he hope that some benefit may accrue to himself from the transformed substance as the panacea, the medicina catholica, just as it may to the imperfect bodies, the base or "sick" metals, etc. His attention is not directed to his own salvation through God's grace, but to the liberation of God from the darkness of matter.”
― C.G. Jung

“I deny morality as I deny alchemy.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality

“It was a large room, heavily outfitted with the usual badly ventilated furnaces, rows of bubbling crucibles, and one stuffed alligator. Things floated in jars. The air smelled of a limited life expectancy.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

“I shall always remember how the peacocks’ tails shimmered when the moon rose amongst the tall trees, and on the shady bank the emerging mermaids gleamed fresh and silvery amongst the rocks…”
― Hermann Hesse, The Journey to the East

“Master Li, how are we going to murder a man who laughs at axes?" I asked.

We are going to experiment, dear boy. Our first order of business will be to find a deranged alchemist, which should not be very difficult. China," said Master Li, "is overstocked with deranged alchemists.”
― Barry Hughart, Bridge of Birds

“Look not so deeply into words and letters; for this Mystery hath been hidden by the Alchemists. Compose the sevenfold into a fourfold regimen; and when thou hast understood thou mayest make symbols; but by playing child's games with symbols thou shalt never understand.”
― Aleister Crowley, The Vision and the Voice: With Commentary and Other Papers

“The water beneath the Temple was both actual and metaphorical, existing as springs and streams, as spiritual energy, and as a symbol of the receptive or lunar aspect of nature.

The meaning of that principle is too wide and elusive for it to be given any one name, so in the terminology of ancient science it was given a number, 1,080. Its polar opposite, the positive, solar force in the universe, was also referred to as a number 666.

These two numbers, which have an approximate golden-section relationship of 1:1.62, were at the root of the alchemical formula that expressed the supreme purpose of the Temple. Its polar opposite, the positive, solar force in the universe, was also referred to as a number 666. Not merely was it used to generate energy from fusion of atmospheric and terrestrial currents, but it also served to combine in harmony all the correspondences of those forces on every level of creation.”
― John Michell, The Dimensions of Paradise: Sacred Geometry, Ancient Science, and the Heavenly Order on Earth

“In these times where it has seemed dark indeed
where integrity appears solely buried in legend and lore,
it is an opportunity in contrast to the shadows,
to create miracles...
by choosing first courage,
then diligence,
standing,
opening our mouth
and speaking the truth that in rare moments,
may ignite the light.”
― Tom Althouse, The Frowny Face Cow

“You know Pastor, baking is a real art. Especially bread baking. There is something so divine about it. It is a pure alchemy. And all alchemical elements are there: flour that comes from the earth and represents material, water that you mix with flour to make the dough, air released by the yeast fermentation that makes dough rise, fire that bakes the bread. It is fantastic. And the aroma of hot bread released during baking is the most pleasant fragrance for our senses. Think about that for a moment, Pastor. Any food aroma that we like, no matter how much we like it, gets overwhelming after a while, and we open the kitchen windows and close kitchen doors so the smell doesn’t get into the living room. Any smell, but the smell of freshly baked bread. Did you ever hear anybody complain about the smell of baked bread? Nobody, Pastor! Nobody. You hear people complaining about their neighbors frying fish, roasting pork, barbecuing sausages, but nobody ever complains about the smell of baked bread. And you know why? Because it is divine. It is magic – the magic of the craft.”
― Stevan V. Nikolic, Truth According to Michael

“Mephistopheles' contentious, often ambiguous relationship to Faustus is a reference to tantra just as it is to alchemy. It resembles the shifting tactics of a guru who varies his approach to his pupil in order to dissolve his resistances and prepare him for wider states of consciousness. Both Faustus and the tantric aspirant stimulate and indulge their senses under the guidance of their teachers who encourage them to have sexual encounters with women in their dreams. Both work with magical diagrams or yantras, exhibit extraordinary will, "fly" on visionary journeys, acquire powers of teleportation, invisibility, prophecy, and healing, and have ritual intercourse with women whom they visualize as goddesses. The tantrist [sic] is said to become omniscient as a result of his sacred "marriage," and Faustus produces an omniscient child in his union with the visualized Helen, or Sophia.”
― Ramona Fradon, The Gnostic Faustus

“Here's what they don't tell you. Love is alchemy. It is the belief that your time spent with this person is better than your time spent without them. Like alchemy at its worst, loving the wrong person can destroy you, piece by piece, until you are nothing but ash. And like alchemy at its finest, finding your soulmate can remake you, elevate you to your most perfect state. Often, you will spend your entire life searching in vain. And sometimes, you simply find out too late.”
― Marie Lu, Red City

“Maroc Metz nods like a loyal knight. He doesn’t complain that the tea in his own cup has turned into ice because of his Master Ruem’s Will of Slayer. He doesn’t ask what this dead bird means. He only guesses. The Mesmerizer taught him enough about alchemy, especially, dark alchemy, to know what it might be.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Content are the souls who submit to the winding strands of fate.
Blessed are those who dare to spin their own.”
― Catherine Doyle, The Dagger and the Flame

“A step back doesn’t stop a man meant to move a kilometre”
― Daniel Derrick Mwesigye, Divine alchemy : The Sacred Refining of a Human Life

“Imagine that your deepest desires are signals from the future version of yourself who knows you were meant to manifest them. These were cravings leading you to the destiny you were always meant to fulfill. To manifest your dreams, visualize that your future self is the one that already has this desire and can't wait for you to experience it. Your future self is calling out to you to birth your desires into existence and embody your highest self. Reframe that desire as evidence that you are meant to have it and already do in another plane of existence. Use this to motivate you toward your highest "timeline.”
― Shahida Arabi MA, Power: Surviving and Thriving After Narcissistic Abuse

“The alchemy of regret is turning the heavy weight of “I wish I hadn’t,” into the lightness of “I’m grateful I grew.”
― Donna Goddard, Consciousness Rising

“Who am I supposed to be next? I am not reading a story; I am writing it in wet ink, smudging the lines as I go.”
― Daniel Derrick Mwesigye, Divine alchemy : The Sacred Refining of a Human Life

“Right before life opens a door, it will try to break you. Everything will seem to crumble at once. Most people turn back here. They second-guess, convince themselves the dream wasn’t meant for them. But if you can keep walking when it feels impossible, if you can hold onto your vision even when no one else sees it… that’s when the tide turns. That’s when things begin to shift.”
― Valentina Mandarin, The Alchemist's Tango