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Mircea Eliade

Mircea Eliade Quotes

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Famous Mircea Eliade Quotes

“In fact, this passion, which at first I had thought impossible, insignificant, sheer fantasy, which was inflamed by Maitreyi herself — who, I had so long belived, was in love with me but is in reality, in love with one — this passion has me in thrall and carries me far away, to an unknown and unearthly region of my soul, to some border territory of my mind where I am blissfully happy, radiant with grace. I have no name for that intimate realm.”

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Book:Maitreyi
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“Her beauty is not conventional, it does not meet classic dictates. Her face is rebelliously expressive. She enchants in the magical sense of the world. I have to confess that I thought of her all night. And even now, instead of working, I visualize her, a pale silhouette in a sari of blue silk, all interwoven with gold thread. And her hair! The Persians were right, in their poetry, to compare women's hair to snakes. What will happen? I do not know. Probably I will forget her. Oh God, when will I find peace?”

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Book:Maitreyi
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“The interest of initiation for an understanding of archaic mentality lies predominantly in its showing us that the true man-the spiritual man-is not given, is not the result of a natural process. He is "made" by the old masters, in accordance with the models revealed by the Divine Beings and preserved in the myths. These old masters constitute the spiritual elites of archaic societies. It is they who know, who know the world of spirit, the truly human world. Their function is to reveal the deep meaning of existence to the new generations and to help them assume the responsibility of being truly men and hence of participating in culture. But since for archaic societies "culture" is the sum of the values received from Supernatural Beings, the function of initiation may be reduced to this : to each new generation, it reveals a world open to the transhuman, a world that, in our philosophical terminology, we should call transcendental.”

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Book:Rites and Symbols of Initiation
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