Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Ram Dass

Quote by Ram Dass

“Maharaji, he would tell me repeatedly, “Ram Dass, love everyone and tell the truth.”

Quote by Ram Dass

Author

Ram Dass
Ram Dass

Ram Dass, born Stephen R. Levine, is an American spiritual teacher, author, and lecturer. Born on April 6, 1931, he is renowned for his influence on the 1960s and 1970s counterculture movement. Dass met his spiritual teacher Neem Karoli Baba in India and became his disciple, which profoundly impacted his life and teachings. His book 'Be Here Now' became a classic in the spiritual movement. more

You May Also Like

“More and more commonly, the strongest public sentiment is one of profound loathing - subversive loathing of 'the hegemonic discourse,' Western loathing of the East, Eastern loathing of the West, secular loathing of believers, religious loathing of the secular. Sweeping, unmitigated loathing surges like vomit from the depths of this or that misery. Such extreme loathing is a component of fanaticism in all its guises.”

“In my novel 'Panther in the Basement,' I retold the experiences that revealed to me, as a child, that sometimes there are two sides to a story, that conflicts are colored not only in black and white. In the last year of the British Mandate, when I was about eight, I befriended a British policeman who spoke ancient Hebrew and had memorized most of the Bible. He was a fat, asthmatic, emotional man, and perhaps a slightly muddled one, who fervently believed that the Jewish people's return to its ancestral land heralded redemption for the world at large. When the other children discovered my friendship with this man, they called me a traitor. Much later, I learned to take comfort in the thought that, for fanatic, a traitor is anyone who dares to change. Fanatics of all kinds, in all places at all times, loathe and fear change, suspecting that it is nothing less than a betrayal resulting from dark, base motives.”

“Like all types of zealotry, violent Islam is not limited to a gang of sadistic, bloodthirsty fanatics. At its foundation stands an idea. A bitter, desperate idea, a distorted idea. However, it is worth remembering that one can almost never vanquish an idea, twisted as it may be, simply by using a big stick. There must be a response; there must be an opposing idea, a more attractive belief, a more persuasive promise. I am unopposed to using a big stick against murderers. I do not believe in turning the other cheek, nor do I share the prevalent opinion whereby violence is the absolute evil. To me, the most extreme evil is not violence but aggression. Violence is the manifestation of aggression. It is often essential to curb aggression with a big stick, as long as the stick is accompanied by an appealing, convincing idea. Absent such an idea, fanatics of one kind or another will step in to fill the void.”

“Fanaticism ... is contagious: a person may catch it even as he fights to cure other people of it. There is no shortage of anti-fanaticism fanatics in the world. All sorts of crusades to stop jihad, and jihads to subjugate the new crusaders. This includes the zeal so prevalent in Israel and in the West these days to deliver a knockout blow that will finish off all the bloodthirsty fanatics and anyone like them once and for all. To eradicate every last bastion of zealotry.”

“Curiosity and imagination are bound together. The age-old human urge to peek behind other people's drawn shutters, the eagerness to compare one's own intimate secrets with the secret intimacy of others, is an urge that may serve as an antidote to the fanatic's lust to murder the difference between himself and others. Or to kill anyone who refuses to change and declines to be exactly like him.”

“The nature of woman is thus, that she will always seek out the stronger, and more aggressive males, and in our modern society, that always means the more barbaric and brutal males. That is why white females have such a preference for black men and Muslim men. and that is also why Asian females have a preference for white men. In fact, many Asian women are also now dating black men. Those of you white supremacists who really believed that Asian women are better than white women are in for a rude awakening. Asian women are actually the biggest race traitors. Something like over 80% of Asian women in America are sexually active with men outside of their own race. Their STD rates is 4 times than Asian men. This is well researched study done by an Asian woman married to a white man and it's published by a major university, Boston University, I believe.”

“Wer der Norm entspricht, kann dem Irrturm erliegen, dass es sie nicht gibt. Wer der Mehrheit ähnelt, kann dem Irrturm erliegen, dass die Ebenbildlichkeit mit der die Norm setzenden Mehrheit keine Rolle spielt. Wer der Norm entspricht, dem oder der fällt oft nicht auf, wie sie anderer ausgrenzt oder degradiert. Wer der Norm entspricht, kann sich oft ihre Wirkung nicht vorstellen, weil die eigene Akzeptanz als selbstverständlich angenommen wird.”