“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.”

“To move towards harmony is the persistent impulse of the rational being, even if the goal lies always beyond the reach of accomplished effort.”

“Perfectionism is self destructive simply because there's no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal.”

“The task of the teacher has come to an end and it is the right time for the student to outshine the master.”

“Do not be afraid of obstacles in your path, it does not matter how great the forces are that stand in your way…. Do not think that anything is impossible when miracles are being worked on every side. If you are true to yourself there is nothing to be afraid of. There is nothing unattainable by truth, love and faith. This is your whole gospel which will work out miracles.”

“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”

“To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is too condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.”

“The goal to be reached is the mind’s insight into what knowing is. Impatience asks for the impossible, wants to reach the goal without the means of getting there. The length of the journey has to be borne with, for every moment is necessary, … because by nothing less could that all-pervading mind ever manage to become conscious of what itself is — for that reason, the individual mind, in the nature of the case, cannot expect by less toil to grasp what its own substance contains.”

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

“The conclusion was…unpalatable to believers in American omnipotence, to whom every goal unattained is explicable only by incompetence or treason.”