JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR Quotes

“AS the falling rain prepares the earth for the future crops of grain and fruit, so the rains of many sorrows showering upon the heart prepare and mellow it for the coming of that wisdom that perfects the mind and gladdens the heart. As the clouds darken the earth but to cool and fructify it, so the clouds of grief cast a shadow over the heart to prepare it for nobler things. The hour of sorrow is the hour of reverence. It puts an end to the shallow sneer, the ribald jest, the cruel calumny; it softens the heart with sympathy, and enriches the mind with thoughtfulness. Wisdom is mainly recollection of all that was learned by sorrow. Do not think that your sorrow will remain; it will pass away like a cloud. Where self ends, grief passes away.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“Self-seeking is self-destruction”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“Unrest and pain and sorrow are the shadows of life.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“The truly contented man works energetically and faithfully, and accepts all results with an untroubled spirit. December Second. THERE are three things with which a man should be content: With whatever happens; with his friendships and possessions; and with his pure thoughts. Contented with whatever happens, he will escape grief; with his friendships and possessions, he will avoid anxiety and wretchedness; and with his pure thoughts, he will never go back to suffer and grovel in impurities. There are three with which a man should not be content: With his opinions; with his character; and with his spiritual condition. Not content with his opinions, he will continually increase in intelligence; not content with his character, he will ceaselessly grow in strength and virtue; and not content with his spiritual condition, he will, every day, enter into a larger wisdom and a fuller blessedness. Results exactly correspond with efforts.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“No power, no event, no circumstance, can compel a man to evil and unhappiness. He himself is his own compeller. He thinks and acts by his own volition. No being, however wise and great--not even the Supreme--can make him good and happy. He himself must choose the good, and thereby find the happy.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“THE flesh flatters; the Spirit reproves. The flesh blindly gratifies; the Spirit wisely disciplines. The flesh loves secrecy; the Spirit is open and clear. The flesh remembers the injury of a friend; the Spirit forgives the bitterest enemy. The flesh is noisy and rude; the Spirit is silent and gracious. The flesh is subject to moods; the Spirit is always calm. The flesh incites to impatience and anger; the Spirit controls with patience and serenity. The flesh is thoughtless; the Spirit is thoughtful. Hatred, pride, harshness, accusing others, revenge, anger, cruelty, and flattery--these are the works of the flesh.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“THE foolish man thinks that little faults, little indulgences, little sins, are of no consequence; he persuades himself that so long as he does not commit flagrant immoralities he is virtuous, and even holy; but he is thereby deprived of virtue and holiness, and the world knows him accordingly; it does not reverence, adore, and love him; it passes him by; he is reckoned of no account; his influence is destroyed. The efforts of such a man to make the world virtuous, his exhortations to his fellow men to abandon great vices, are empty of substance and barren of fruitage. The insignificance which he attaches to his small vices permeates his whole character, and is the measure of his manhood. He who regards his smallest delinquencies as of the gravest nature becomes a saint.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“The man who cannot endure to have his errors and shortcomings brought to the surface and made known, but tries to hide them, is unfit to walk the highway of Truth.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“Ignorant men imagine that dishonesty is a short cut to prosperity. July Twenty-First. HONESTY is the surest way to success. The clay at last comes when the dishonest man repents in sorrow and suffering; but no man ever needs to repent of having been honest. Even when the honest man fails--as he does sometimes through lacking other of those pillars, such as energy, economy, or system--his failure is not the grievous thing that it is to the dishonest mem, for he can always rejoice in the fact that he has never defrauded a fellow-being. Even in his darkest hour he finds repose in a clear conscience. The dishonest man is morally short-sighted.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“THERE is no bondage in the Heavenly Life. There is Perfect Freedom. This is its great glory. This Supreme Freedom is gained only by obedience. He who obeys the Highest co-operates with the Highest, and so masters every force within himself and every condition without. A man may choose the lower and neglect the Higher, but the Higher is never overcome by the lower: herein lies the revelation of Freedom.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“There is but one religion, the religion of Truth.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“He who masters the small becomes the rightful possessor of the great.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“He only is fitted to command and control who has succeeded in commanding and controlling himself.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“Before the divine radiance of a pure heart all darkness vanishes and all clouds melt away, and he who has conquered self has conquered the universe.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“You must get outside yourself, and must begin to examine and understand yourself.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“Mediation centred upon divine realities is the very essence and soul of prayer.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“Exert yourself ceaselessly in decreasing evil and accumulating good.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“Renew your resolution daily, and in the hour of temptation do not depart from the right path.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“If one would find peace, he must come out of passion.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR

“FREQUENTLY the man of passion is most eager to put others right; but the man of wisdom puts himself right. If one is anxious to reform the world, let him begin by reforming himself. The reformation of self does not end with the elimination of the sensual elements only; that is its beginning. It ends only when every vain thought and selfish aim is overcome. Short of perfect purity and wisdom, there is still some form of self-slavery or folly which needs to be conquered. On the wings of aspiration man rises from earth to heaven, from ignorance to knowledge, from the under darkness to the upper light. Without it he remains a grovelling animal, earthly, sensual, unenlightened, and uninspired. Aspiration is the longing for heavenly things.”
― James Allen, JAMES ALLEN'S BOOK OF MEDITATIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR