John Burdett Quotes

If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

Everyone will experience the consequences of his own acts. If his act are right, he'll get good consequences; if they're not, he'll suffer for it.

The measure of and self-congratulation for our own intelligence should have its basis in our moral behavior as well as our smarts.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

Thoughts lead to acts, acts lead to habits, habits lead to character - and our character will determine our eternal destiny.

Every fault of the mind becomes more conspicuous and more guilty in proportion to the rank of the offender

One of the things I think about when we talk about a violence,and relationship to spirituality is that it seems to me when you take something from someone that isn't yours or you hurt someone else, fundamentally, you actually do that to yourself. You actually unmake yourself, you work against your own being and your own matter.

If thou wilt be observant and vigilant, thou wilt see at every moment the response to thy action. Be observant if thou wouldst have a pure heart, for something is born to thee in consequence of every action.

I understand the law through the operation of which my own character is developed from my own acts and thoughts; therefore, I will guard with care all that goes into its development.

A good man will not engage even in a national cause, without examining the justice of it.

To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism; had we never sinned we should have had no conscience. Were defeat unknown, neither would victory be celebrated by songs of triumph.

If the mind, that rules the body, ever so far forgets itself as to trample on its slave, the slave is never generous enough to forgive the injury, but will rise and smite the oppressor.

One must, so long as there is any life left, back up the character of one's life.

You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.

It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.

Sin is a dangerous toy in the hands of the virtuous. It should be left to the congenitally sinful, who know when to play with it and when to let it alone.

Great men never make bad use of their superiority. They see it and feel it and are not less modest. The more they have, the more they know their own deficiencies.

It is not enough to recognize what is right and true. One must control the impulse to do what is wrong and easy.

The thing for us to do is just to do our duty, and not worry about whether anybody sees us do it or not.

Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.

Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.

As children, Siddhartha and Jesus both realized that life is filled with suffering. The Buddha became aware at an early age that suffering is pervasive. Jesus must have had the same kind of insight, because they both made every effort to offer a way out. We, too, must learn to live in ways that reduce the world's suffering.

Each day look into your conscience and amend your faults; if you fail in this duty you will be untrue to the Knowledge and Reason that are within you. Keep a watchful eye over yourself as if you were your own enemy; for you cannot learn to govern yourself, unless you first learn to govern your own passions and obey the dictates of your conscience.

Poverty, disease, sorrow, imprisonment and other evils are the fruits borne by the tree of one's own sins.