“The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Edward Everett, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 352.
“The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist
To an Afflicted Protestant Lady.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.”
André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist
The Journals of André Gide: 1914-1927, A.A. Knopf, 1951, p. 313
Journals 1889-1949
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“I, for one, shall speak about those obstinate Greeks, who are with us and against us, united in faith and divided in peace, though in truth their faith may stray from the straight path.”
Ego addo et de pertinacia Græcorum, qui nobiscum sunt, et nobiscum non sunt, juncti fide, pace divisi, quanquam et in fide ipsa claudicaverint a semitis rectis.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French abbot, theologian
De Consideratione http://www.binetti.ru/bernardus/10.shtml (1149-1152), lib. III (1152), c. I; Book of Considerations, part III, ch. I <br class="br">"Greeks" refers to the (Eastern) Orthodox Church.
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher
Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 158
Context: One should not think, "My religion alone is the right path and other religions are false." God can be realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have sincere yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and infinite the opinions.
“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Maurice Davis (1921–1993) American rabbi
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)
“The sure path can only lead to death.”
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology