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Annie Besant

Annie Besant Quotes

Member of the London School Board

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Famous Annie Besant Quotes

“The divine life is the spirit in everything that exists, from the atom to the archangel; the grain of dust could not be were God absent from it; the loftiest seraph is but a spark from the eternal fire, which is God. Sharers in one life all form one brotherhood. The immanence of God, the solidarity of man, such are the basic truths of theosophy.”

MenFormLife IsSpiritFireDivineEternalDustSparksAtomsBrotherhoodGrainSolidarityAbsentArchangelDivine Life
Book:To Members of the Theosophical Society: Being a Selection of Instructive Articles and Teachings
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“The human body is constantly undergoing a process of decay and of reconstruction. First builded into the astral form in the womb of the mother, it is built up continually by the insetting of fresh materials. With every moment tiny molecules are passing away from it; with every moment tiny molecules are streaming into it.”

FirstsHumansMomentsBodyFormMotherProcessMaterialsBuiltTinyPassingPassingsDecayWombHuman BodyPassing AwayMoleculesReconstructionStreaming
Book:Theosophical Review
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“This Old Testament - containing error, folly, absurdity and immorality - is by English statute law declared to be of divine authority, a blasphemy - if there were anyone to be blasphemed - blacker and more insolent than any word ever written or penned by the most hotheaded Freethinker.”

IfsLawWrittenDivineAuthorityErrorsFollyAbsurdityTestamentOld TestamentBlasphemyImmoralityFreethinkerContainingStatutesInsolent
Book:The Christian Creed: Or, What it is Blasphemy to Deny
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“We were an ill-matched pair, my husband and I, from the very outset; he, with very high ideas of a husband's authority and a wife's submission, holding strongly to the 'master-in-my-own-house theory,' thinking much of the details of home arrangements, precise, methodical, easily angered and with difficulty appeased.”

ThinkingIdeasHomeHouseMy OwnWifeMastersTheoryHusbandAuthorityDifficultyIllDetailsPairsMy HusbandArrangementsPreciseSubmissionMatchedMethodical
Book:Annie Besant: An Autobiography
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“What is the essence of theosophy? It is the fact that man, being himself divine, can know the divinity whose life he shares. As an inevitable corollary to this supreme truth comes the fact of the brotherhood of man.”

KnowsMenFactsShareDivineEssenceSupremeInevitableDivinityBrotherhoodBrotherhood Of Man
Book:To Members of the Theosophical Society: Being a Selection of Instructive Articles and Teachings
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“The position of the Atheist is a clear and reasonable one. I know nothing about ‘God’ and therefore I do not believe in Him or in it; what you tell me about your God is self‐contradictory, and therefore incredible. I do not deny ‘God,’ which is an unknown tongue to me; I do deny your God, who is an impossibility. I am without God.”

KnowsBelieveSelfClearAtheismPositionIncrediblesAtheistDenyTongueReasonableImpossibilityContradictoryWithout God
Book:Annie Besant: An Autobiography
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“The Self in you is the same as the Self Universal. Whatever powers are manifested throughout the world, those powers exist in germ, in latency, in you.... If you realize the unity of the Self amid the diversities of the Not-Self, then Yoga Will not seem an impossible thing to you.”

IfsWorldSelfSeemsSuccessRealizingImpossibleDiversityYogaUniversalUnityGermsImpossible Things
Book:The Theosophical Writings of Annie Besant
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“Yoga is a science, and not a vague dreamy drifting or imagining. It is an applied science, a systematized collection of laws applied to bring about a definite end. It takes up the laws of psychology, applicable to the unfolding of the whole consciousness of man on every plane, in every world, and applies those rationally in a particular case. This rational application of the laws of unfolding consciousness acts exactly on the same principles that you see applied around you every day in other departments of science.”

MenWorldEndsWholeSuccessLawConsciousnessPrinciplesCasesPsychologyParticularYogaRationalPlanesDepartmentCollectionsApplicationDefiniteVagueUnfoldingDriftingDreamyYoga InspirationInspirational YogaApplied Science
Book:The Nature and Practice of Yoga
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“Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.”

IfsCountryFacesJoyWinningLosesForgetCourageDangerAdventureBattleInspiredSettingSettingsNever ForgetSplendidComradeWinning And LosingLife AdventureAdventure And LifeExploration And Adventure
Author:Annie Besant
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“It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, o­ne of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.”

KnowsWayFeelsMayCharacterKnow HowStudyTeacherImpossibleTaughtIslamSupremeFamiliarProphetAdmirationReverenceNew WaysArabiaMessengersArabian
Author:Annie Besant
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“Meditation means this opening out of the soul to the Divine and letting the Divine shine in without obstruction from the personal self. Therefore it means renunciation. It means throwing away everything that one has, and waiting empty for the light to come in.”

MeanSoulSelfLightWaitingMeditationDivineEmptyShiningOpeningThrowingRenunciationObstructionThrowing Away
Book:The Building of the Kosmos and Other Lectures
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