And Polo said: "The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.
Italo Calvino, from "Invisible Cities"

"If a man becomes a Brahmin by reciting the Vedas, let the people of the lower classes also recite the Vedas and they will also become Brahmans. In vain do they offer ghee to the fire, for thereby their eyes will only be affected... The devotees of Lord (Isvara), again, anoint the whole body with ashes... they whisper (religious doctrines) into the ears (of credulous people) and deceive them thereby. The widows, the Mundis (women taking the vow of fasting for the whole month) and others taking different vows, get themselves initiated by these devotees who do it only in greed of money... [Against the Jain Ksapanaka Yogis it is said] if only the naked attain liberation, the dog and the fox would also attain it; if liberation is attained by tearing of hairs, the hips of young women would also attain it... The Celas, the Bhiksus and the Sthaviras take the vow of Pravrajya; some of them are lost in explaining the Sutras, some again in strenuous thinking and reading. Others rush into the Mahayana fold, but none of them get the ultimate truth... What will one do with lamps, offerings, mantras and services? What is the good in going to holy places or to the hermitage? Can liberation be attained only bathing in holy waters?"
Saraha - a Sahajayana polemicist
from "Buddhism in the History of Indian Ideas" by N.N. Bhattacharyya

For what purpose humanity is there should not even concern us: why are you there, that you should ask yourself. And if you have no ready answer, then set for yourself goals, high and noble goals, and perish in pursuit of them! I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible...
Nietzsche, unpublished note from 1873

"Forsooth, this is the second time that the wheel of the true law has been set in motion on Indian soil, let us go and watch!" But the Buddha, turning stealthily to Subhuti, whispered something that he would not tell the gods; for it was beyond their power of understanding. "This is not the second time that the wheel of the true law has been set in motion; there is no setting in motion of anything, nor any stopping of the motion of anything. Knowing just that, is the perfection of wisdom (prajna-paramita) which is characteristic of the beings whose essence is enlightment." .....

The Prajna-paramita texts of the Mahayana were intended to counteract what the authors regarded as a basic misunderstanding, in the Hinayana, of the very essence of the wisdom of the Buddha, a misunderstanding caused by thinking that the preliminary teaching was an expression of the Buddha's transcendental realization. The emphasis on the means, the path, the rules of the order, and the ethical discipline of the ferry-ride was stiffling the essence of the tradition within the very fold of Buddhism itself. The Mahayana way, on the other hand, was to reassert this essence by means of a bold and stunning paradox....

The disciple Subhuti said: "Profound O Venerable One, is the perfect Transcendental Wisdom."
Quoth the Venerable One: "Abysmally profound, like the space of the universe, O, Subhuti, is the perfect Transcendental Wisdom."
The disciple Subhuti said again: "Difficult to be attained through Awakening is the perfect Transcendental Wisdom, O Venerable One."
Quoth the Venerable One: "That is the reason, O Subhuti, why no one ever attains it through Awakening."
Heinrich Zimmer, Philosophies of India, Pages 484-487

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You playing small does not serve the World. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to manifest the glory of God that is in us. It's not just within some of us, it's in everyone. When we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give to other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela,
Excerpted from his inaugural address