"August 21, 1844. The object of education should be to place each individual mind in vital union with the One Universal Educator. . . .
"The only pleasure for man is his union with _a priori_ principles."
"August 23, 1844.--If the animal passions are indulged, of course you must pay the cost. If you get a large family of children about you, and please your animal appetites with all sorts of luxury, and indulge your pride in all the foolish fashions of show, do not wonder that it cost all your time to uphold such an expensive life. This is necessary, unless you cheat some one else out of the hard-earned value of his labor. I cannot conceive how a Christian, under the present arrangements, can become wealthy without violating repeatedly the precepts of his religion. . . ."
"How shall we hear the voices of angels? Listen with the inward ear.
"When are we with God? When we are no more with ourselves.
"When do we hear the music of heaven? When we are entirely silent.
"Who loves God? He who knows nothing and loves nothing of himself.
"What is love? The motion of the pure will.
"Where does God dwell? Where there is peace.
"Who is most like God? He who knows he is the least like Him.
"What is the innermost of all? Stillness.
"Who is the purest? He who is most beyond temptation.
"What is the personality of man? The absolute negation of God.
"What is God? The absolute affirmation in man.
"What is it to know? It is to be ignorant.
"What is the most positive answer? Silence.
"What is the truest? That which cannot be proven."
"August 25, 1844.--In silence, suffering without murmuring. An eternal thirst, enduring without being quenched. Infinite longings without being met. Heart ever burning, never refreshed. Void within and mystery all around. Ever escaping that which we would reach. Tortured incessantly without relief. Alone--bereft of God, angels, men--all. Hopes gone, fears vanished, and love dead within. These, and more than these, must man suffer."
"August 28, 1844.--Is it not because I have been too much engaged in reading and paid too little attention to the centre that I have lost myself, as it were? My position here distracts my attention and I lose the delight, intimate knowledge, and sweet consciousness of my interior life. How can this be remedied? I am constantly called of to matters in which I have no relish; and if I retreat for a short time, they rest on me like a load, so that I cannot call myself free at any moment. I see the case as it stands, and feel I am losing my interior life from the false position in which I am placed.