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H. P. Blavatsky Quotes

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 8 May 1891) was a theosophist, writer and traveler. In 1875 Blavatsky, together with Colonel H. S. Olcott, established the Theosophical Society. One of the main purposes of this Society was “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color”. Blavatsky discussed the major themes of Theosophy in several works, including The Secret Doctrine, Isis Unveiled, The Key to Theosophy, and The Voice of the Silence.

Selected Quotes of Blavatsky are:

To live to benefit mankind is the first step.
Be humble, it thou wouldst attain to Wisdom. Be humbler still, when Wisdom thou has mastered.
If we admit that we are in the stream of evolution, then each circumstance must be to us quite right.
To be without personal desires is to be free and happy, and "Heaven" can mean nothing else but a state in which freedom and happiness exists.
He who is led by personal considerations cannot enter a heaven where personal considerations do not exist. He who does not care for Heaven, but is contented where he is, is already in Heaven, while the discontented will in vain clamour for it.
The Theosophical idea of charity means personal exertion for others; personal mercy and kindness; personal interest in the welfare of those who suffer; personal sympathy, forethought and assistance in their troubles or needs.
Prayer is an ennobling action when it is an intense feeling, an ardent desire rushing forth from our very heart, for the good of other people, and when entirely detached from any selfish, personal object.
Fear and hatred are essentially one and the same. He who fears nothing will never hate, and he who hates nothing will never fear.
Help nature and work on with her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance. And she will open wide before thee the portals of her secret chambers.
Children should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, mutual charity, and, more than anything else, to think and reason for themselves. We would reduce the purely mechanical work of the memory to an absolute minimum, and devote the time to the development and training of the inner senses, faculties and latent capacities ..... We should aim at creating free men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all respects, and, above all things, unselfish.
Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition. Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin.
Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of being. As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that unseen and unknown law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably, each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer.
Karma creates nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plans and creates causes, and Karmic Law adjusts the effect, which adjustment is not an act, but universal harmony, tending ever to resume it original position, like a bough, which, bent down too forcibly, rebounds with corresponding vigour. If it happen to dislocate the arm that tried to bend it out of its natural position, shall we say that it is the bough which broke our arm, or that our own folly has brought us to grief?
Karma-Nemesis .... punishes the evil-doer, aye, even to his seventh rebirth, so long, indeed, as the effect of his having thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the Infinite World of Harmony has not been finally readjusted.
As many physical diseases are due to the presence of parasites, attracted or produced by uncleanness and other causes, so parasitic spirits are attracted by immorality or spiritual uncleanness, thereby inducing spiritual diseases and consequent physical ailments.
Occultism asserts the eternal individuality of the soul, the imperishable force which is the cause and sustaining power of all organisation.
Excesses of power, abuse of knowledge and personal ambition very often led selfish and unscrupulous Initiates to black Magic.
It is personal selfishness that develops and urges man on to abuse of his knowledge and power. And selfishness is a human building, who window and doors are ever wide open for every kind of iniquity to enter into man's soul.
The best remedy for evil is not the suppression, but the elimination of desire, and this can best be accomplished by keeping the mind constantly steeped in things divine.
Thou shalt not let thy senses make a playground of thy mind.
Occultism is not magic, though magic is one of its tools. Occultism is not the acquirement of powers, whether psychic or intellectual, though both are its servants. Neither is occultism the pursuit of happiness, as men understand the word; for the first step is sacrifice, the second renunciation.
Theosophy teaches self-abnegation, but does not teach rash and useless self-sacrifice, nor does it justify fanaticism.
Between the extremes of spiritual negation and affirmation there ought to be a middle ground; only pure philosophy can establish truth upon firm principles; and no philosophy can be complete unless it embraces both physics and metaphysics.
The tree is known by its fruits; and as all theosophists have to be judged by their deeds, and not by what they write or say, so all theosophical books must be accepted on their merits, and not according to any claim to authority which they may put forward.
Any person of average intellectual capacities, and a leaning towards the metaphysical; of pure, unselfish life, who finds more joy in helping his neighbour than in receiving help himself; one who is every ready to sacrifice his own pleasures for the sake of other people; and who loves Truth, Goodness and Wisdom for their own sake, not for the benefit they may confer — is a Theosophist.
Purity of deed and thought can alone raise us to an intercourse “with the gods” and attain for us the goal we desire.
Behold the truth before you;
A clean life,
An open mind,
A pure heart,
An eager intellect,
An unveiled spiritual perception,
A brotherliness for one's co-disciple,
A readiness to give and receive advice and instruction,
A loyal sense of duty to the teacher,
A willing obedience to the behests of truth,
Once we have placed our confidence in, and believe that teacher to be in possession of it;
A courageous endurance of personal injustice,
A brave declaration of principles,
A valiant defense of those who are unjustly attacked,
And a constant eye to the ideal of Human progression and perfection which the secret science (Gupta-Vidya) depicts
- these are the Golden Stairs up the steps of which the learner may climb to the temple of divine wisdom.
There can be no sectarianism in truth seeking.
Hold any object in your hand, and it will become impregnated with your life-atoms, indrawn and outdrawn, changed and transferred in us at every instant of our lives.
The human spirit, being of the Divine, immortal Spirit, appreciates neither past nor future, but sees all things as in the present.
In the stillness of the night hours, when our bodily senses are fast locked in the fetters of sleep, and our elementary body rests, the astral form becomes free.
There is no more valuable thing possessed by any individual than an exalted ideal towards which he continually aspires, and after which he moulds his thoughts and feelings, and forms, as best he may, his life.
Right thought is a good thing, but thought alone does not count for much unless it is translated into action.
Put, without delay, your good intentions into practice, never leaving a single one to remain only an intention.
The will of the Creator, through which all things were made and received their first impulse, is the property of every living being. Man, endowed with an additional spirituality, has the largest share of it on this planet. It depends on the proportion of matter in him whether he will exercise its magical faculty with more or less success.
The Rosicrucian theory, that the whole universe is a musical instrument, is the Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres, Sounds and colours are all spiritual numerals; as the seven prismatic rays proceed from one spot in heaven, so the seven powers of nature, each of them a number, are the seven radiations of the Unity, the central, spiritual Sun.
It is only through observing the law of harmony that individual life hereafter can be obtained; and the farther the inner and outer man deviate from this fount of harmony, whose source lies in our divine spirit, the more difficult it is to regain the ground.
The only decree of Karma, an eternal and immutable decree, is absolute Harmony in the world of Matter as it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we who reward or punish ourselves, according as we work with, through and along with Nature, abiding by the laws on which that harmony depends, or breaking them.
The mind requires purification whenever anger is felt or a falsehood is told, or the faults of another needlessly disclosed; whenever anything is said or done for the purpose of flattery, or anyone is deceived by the insincerity of a speech or an act.
Occultism tells us that every atom, like the monad of Leibnitz, is a little universe in itself; and that every organ and cell in the human body is endowed with a brain of its own, with memory, therefore, experience and discriminative powers.
Physical man is but the highest development of animal life.