“What is called family pride is often founded on the illusion of self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself.”

“Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.”

“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.”

“According to the Buddha, the failure to recognize the illusion of the self is the source of all ignorance and unhappiness. It is only by renouncing the self, that is, by dropping his ego defences and committing metaphorical suicide, that a person can open up to different modes of being and relating and thereby transform himself into a pure essence of humanity. In so doing, he becomes free to recast himself as a much more joyful and productive person, and attains the only species of transcendence and immortality that is open to man.”

“For in prosperity a man is often puffed up with pride, whereas tribulations chasten and humble him through suffering and sorrow. In the midst of prosperity the mind is elated, and in prosperity a man forgets himself; in hardship he is forced to reflect on himself, even though he be unwilling. In prosperity a man often destroys the good he has done; amidst difficulties he often repairs what he long since did in the way of wickedness.”

“A man's immortality can be found in his children.”