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Annie Besant Quotes
Annie Besant Quotes
Annie Besant
English
Philosopher
Born:
Oct 1
,
1847
Died:
Sep 20
,
1933
Every
God
Knowledge
Life
Man
World
Related authors:
Alan Watts
Francis Bacon
George Henry Lewes
Herbert Spencer
Jeremy Bentham
John Locke
John Stuart Mill
Thomas Hobbes
Quick condemnation of all that is not ours, of views with which we disagree, of ideas that do not attract us, is the sign of a narrow mind, of an uncultivated intelligence. Bigotry is always ignorant, and the wise boy, who will become the wise man, tries to understand and to see the truth in ideas with which he does not agree.
Annie Besant
Truth
Wise
Man
Wise Man
Intelligence
Disagree
Mind
Will
Become
Sign
Ours
Tries
See
He
Ideas
Attract
Understand
Boy
Does
Always
Narrow
Condemnation
Quick
Which
Us
Ignorant
Views
Who
Agree
A people can prosper under a very bad government and suffer under a very good one, if in the first case the local administration is effective and in the second it is inefficient.
Annie Besant
Government
Good
People
First
Local
Bad
Administration
Bad Government
Case
Prosper
Inefficient
Effective
Very
Suffer
Second
'Easter' is a movable event, calculated by the relative positions of sun and moon, an impossible way of fixing year by year the anniversary of a historical event, but a very natural and indeed inevitable way of calculating a solar festival. These changing dates do not point to the history of a man, but to the hero of a solar myth.
Annie Besant
History
Man
Natural
Impossible
Hero
Solar
Moon
Myth
Inevitable
Year
Positions
Changing
Relative
Way
Indeed
Sun
Easter
Dates
Point
Anniversary
Calculated
Calculating
Historical
Very
Festival
Fixing
Movable
The History Of
Event
Death consists, indeed, in a repeated process of unrobing, or unsheathing. The immortal part of man shakes off from itself, one after the other, its outer casings, and - as the snake from its skin, the butterfly from its chrysalis - emerges from one after another, passing into a higher state of consciousness.
Annie Besant
Death
Man
Snake
Skin
Other
State
Chrysalis
Indeed
Consists
Immortal
Outer
Emerges
Shakes
Higher
Part
Another
Passing
Repeated
Off
Itself
After
Process
Butterfly
Consciousness
Socialism is the ideal state, but it can never be achieved while man is so selfish.
Annie Besant
Man
Selfish
Socialism
State
Never
Ideal
Achieved
While
To me in my childhood, elves and fairies of all sorts were very real things, and my dolls were as really children as I was myself a child.
Annie Besant
Myself
Me
Elves
Fairies
Sort
Real
Were
Dolls
Very
Child
Childhood
Children
Really
Things
Every form, not being the whole, must, of necessity, be imperfect; less than the whole, it cannot be identical with the whole, and being less than the whole and, therefore, imperfect by itself, it shows imperfection as evil, and only the totality of a universe can mirror the image of God.
Annie Besant
God
Evil
Mirror
Every
Universe
Must
Totality
Only
Imperfect
Imperfection
Identical
Itself
Than
Being
Form
Cannot
Less
Therefore
Whole
Shows
Image
Necessity
The generous wish to share with all what is precious, to spread broadcast priceless truths, to shut out none from the illumination of true knowledge, has resulted in a zeal without discretion that has vulgarised Christianity, and has presented its teachings in a form that often repels the heart and alienates the intellect.
Annie Besant
Knowledge
Heart
Wish
Christianity
Broadcast
Out
Resulted
Priceless
Share
True
Generous
True Knowledge
Without
None
Spread
Intellect
Discretion
Precious
Truths
Often
Form
Teachings
Zeal
Illumination
Shut
Presented
You should always take a religion at its best and not at its worst, from its highest teachings and not from the lowest practices of some of its adherents.
Annie Besant
Best
Religion
You
Worst
Some
Take
Highest
Practices
Always
Should
Lowest
Teachings
Premonitions, presentiments, the sensing of unseen presences and many allied experiences are due to the activity of the astral body and its reaction on the physical; their ever-increasing frequency is merely the result of its evolution among educated people.
Annie Besant
People
Result
Evolution
Physical
Allied
Unseen
Merely
Reaction
Frequency
Due
Educated
Educated People
Experiences
Sensing
Body
Many
Activity
Among
After death we live for some time in the astral world in the astral body used during our life on earth, and the more we learn to control and use it wisely now the better for us after death.
Annie Besant
Life
Death
Time
World
Better
Control
Live
Our
Earth
Some
More
Wisely
Learn
After
Us
Body
Use
Used
Now
What is the constitution of the universe? The universe is the manifestation of the divine thought; the thought of God embodies itself in the thought-forms that we call worlds.
Annie Besant
God
Constitution
Thought
Universe
Worlds
Embodies
Divine
Call
Itself
Manifestation
Men are at every stage of evolution, from the most barbarous to the most developed; men are found of lofty intelligence, but also of the most unevolved mentality; in one place there is a highly developed and complex civilisation, in another a crude and simple polity.
Annie Besant
Intelligence
Simple
Men
Stage
Every
Complex
Evolution
Lofty
Civilisation
Mentality
Crude
Developed
Highly
Most
Also
Another
Polity
Place
Found
Britons are good, though often brutal, colonists where they come into relations with entirely uncivilized tribes whose past is so remote as to be forgotten. But they trample with their heavy boots over the sensitive, delicate susceptibilities of an ancient, highly civilized and cultured nation, such as India.
Annie Besant
Good
Nation
Past
Britons
Relations
Though
Tribes
Ancient
Boots
India
Entirely
Delicate
Colonists
Civilized
Uncivilized
Brutal
Highly
Over
Come
Remote
Cultured
Trample
Often
Forgotten
Where
Heavy
Sensitive
Whose
The mental body, like the astral, varies much in different people; it is composed of coarser or of finer matter, according to the needs of the more or less unfolded consciousness connected with it. In the educated it is active and well-defined; in the undeveloped it is cloudy and inchoate.
Annie Besant
Needs
People
Matter
Active
Composed
Finer
Mental
More
Varies
More Or Less
Like
Educated
According
Different
Cloudy
Much
Body
Different People
Less
Connected
Consciousness
Man is a spiritual intelligence, who has taken flesh with the object of gaining experience in worlds below the spiritual, in order that he may be able to master and to rule them, and in later ages take his place in the creative and directing hierarchies of the universe.
Annie Besant
Spiritual
Man
Creative
Experience
Intelligence
Master
Universe
Worlds
Later
Rule
Hierarchies
Able
Object
Directing
Take
He
Taken
His
May
Order
Place
Gaining
Them
Ages
Flesh
Who
Below
Clairvoyants can see flashes of colour, constantly changing, in the aura that surrounds every person: each thought, each feeling, thus translating itself in the astral world, visible to the astral sight.
Annie Besant
World
Thought
Feeling
Every
Changing
Visible
Sight
Constantly
See
Colour
Thus
Aura
Itself
Surrounds
Person
Flashes
Translating
Each
As the heat of the coal differs from the coal itself, so do memory, perception, judgment, emotion, and will, differ from the brain which is the instrument of thought.
Annie Besant
Memory
Will
Thought
Perception
Judgment
Emotion
Instrument
Brain
Itself
Heat
Differ
Which
Coal
Differs
There can be no wise politics without thought beforehand.
Annie Besant
Politics
Wise
Thought
Without
Beforehand
Debating clubs among boys are very useful, not only as affording pleasant meetings and interesting discussions, but also as serving for training grounds for developing the knowledge and the qualities that are needed in public life.
Annie Besant
Life
Knowledge
Training
Pleasant
Meetings
Only
Developing
Also
Qualities
Boy
Debating
Very
Discussions
Clubs
Interesting
Public
Public Life
Useful
Grounds
Among
Serving
Needed
A common religion is not possible for India, but a recognition of a common basis for all religions, and the growth of a liberal, tolerant spirit in religious matters, are possible.
Annie Besant
Religion
Matters
Liberal
Recognition
Possible
All Religions
India
Religions
Religious
Spirit
Common
Tolerant
Growth
Basis
I often think that woman is more free in Islam than in Christianity. Woman is more protected by Islam than by the faith which preaches monogamy. In AI Quran the law about woman is juster and more liberal.
Annie Besant
Faith
Woman
Law
AI
Free
Islam
Think
Christianity
Liberal
About
More
Protected
Preaches
Than
Often
Which
Monogamy
What, after all, is the object of education? To train the body in health, vigor and grace, so that it may express the emotions in beauty and the mind with accuracy and strength.
Annie Besant
Education
Health
Strength
Emotions
Grace
Mind
Beauty
Object
Train
Accuracy
May
After
Body
Vigor
Express
Evil is only imperfection, that which is not complete, which is becoming, but has not yet found its end.
Annie Besant
Evil
Complete
Only
Imperfection
Becoming
End
Which
Found
In a deep metaphysical sense, all that is conditioned is illusory. All phenomena are literally 'appearances,' the outer masks in which the One Reality shows itself forth in our changing universe. The more 'material' and solid the appearance, the further is it from reality, and therefore the more illusory it is.
Annie Besant
Reality
Sense
Universe
Changing
Our
Further
Solid
Outer
More
Masks
Material
Metaphysical
Conditioned
Itself
Literally
Which
Reality Shows
Forth
Deep
Therefore
Appearance
Appearances
Shows
Illusory
Phenomena
For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most.
Annie Besant
Women
Church
Evil
Thought
Christian
Despise
Those
Leaders
Spoke
Most
Greatest
Saints
Centuries
Who
Necessary
Necessary Evil
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