Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens with the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.
Common people pray for rain, healthy children and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.
You may control a mad elephant; You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; Ride the lion and play with the cobra; By alchemy you may earn your livelihood; You may wander through the universe incognito; Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful; You may walk on water and live in fire; But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
If we sincerely want to become a liberated person, then we have to be willing to be independent in a world where so few truly think for themselves.
The mode of living which is founded upon a total harmlessness towards all life forms or (in case of actual necessity) upon a minimum of such harm is the highest morality.
