“The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.”
“seeker of truth
follow no path
all paths lead where
truth is here”
3
73 poems (1963)
Variant: We know, and we must never forget, that every path leads somewhere. The path of segregation leads to lynching. The path of anti-Semitism leads to Auschwitz. The path of cults leads to Jonestown. We ignore this fact at our peril. As quoted in "How Many Jonestowns Will It Take?" in The Cult Observer (1992), p. 123
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Maurice Davis / Quotes / Address on the Cult Phenomenon in the United States (1979)
Supporting Cult Prevention, Assistance, & Recovery http://www.csj.org/aff/aff_contribution, Herbert L. Rosedale, president (deceased), American Family Foundation, 2005 - International Cultic Studies Association.
"The Art of Hoping: A Mother’s Story" http://www.csj.org/infoserv_articles/langone_michael_arthoping.htm, Cultic Studies Journal, Michael Langone, Ph.D.
1920s, Truth is a Pathless Land (1929)
Context: I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous precipices.
"Fifth Talk in Bombay 1950 (12 March 1950) http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=352&chid=4672&w=%22Truth+is+not+something+in+the+distance%22, J.Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 500312, The Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 134
Posthumous publications, The Collected Works
Context: Truth is not something in the distance; there is no path to it, there is neither your path nor my path; there is no devotional path, there is no path of knowledge or path of action, because truth has no path to it. The moment you have a path to truth, you divide it, because the path is exclusive; and what is exclusive at the very beginning will end in exclusiveness. The man who is following a path can never know truth because he is living in exclusiveness; his means are exclusive, and the means are the end, are not separate from the end. If the means are exclusive, the end is also exclusive. So there is no path to truth, and there are not two truths. Truth is not of the past or the present, it is timeless; the man who quotes the truth of the Buddha, of Shankara, of Christ, or who merely repeats what I am saying, will not find truth, because repetition is not truth. Repetition is a lie.
Source: To Tame a Highland Warrior
“The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.”
To an Afflicted Protestant Lady.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
