"Call upon the Goddess and God to protect you and teach you the secrets of magic.
Ask stones and plants to reveal their powers - and listen."

Scott Cunningham - American author on Wicca and Pagan rituals
 

"Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.
It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."

Indian activist and spiritual leader
 

"Where the Mystery is present, joy is infinite;
where the Mystery has departed,
efficacy is exhausted and the spirit disappears."

Chinese alchemist and Taoist philosopher
 

"On every full moon, rituals ... take place on hilltops,
beaches, in open fields and in ordinary houses.
Writers, teachers, nurses, computer programmers,
artists, lawyers, poets, plumbers,
and auto mechanics -- women and men from many backgrounds
come together to celebrate the mysteries of the Triple Goddess of the Dance of Life.
The religion they practice is called Witchcraft."

Starhawk
 

"if you have time to breathe you have time to meditate."
You breathe when you walk. You breathe when you stand. You breathe when you lie down.

Buddhist Monk Ajahn Amaro
 

"The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.

In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing."

Tao Te Ching ~
 

"People only see what they are prepared to see."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

"To deny the possibility, nay, the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery
, is at once flatly to contradict the revealed word of God in various passages
both of the Old and New Testament, and the thing itself is a Truth to which every nation in the world hath,
in its turn, borne testimony, by either example seemingly well attested or by prohibitory laws,
which at least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil spirits."

Sir William Blackstone
 

"Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover
the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes."

From `Happiness and God's Grace' by Ramana Maharshi
 

"When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches?
my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions;
or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is,
and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it."

Joseph Addison
 

"We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don't make peace with ourselves.
World peace must develop out of inner peace.
Without inner peace it is impossible to achieve world peace, external peace.
Weapons themselves do not act.
They have not come out of the blue. Man has made them.
But even given those weapons, those terrible weapons, they cannot act by themselves.
As long as they are left alone in storage they cannot do any harm.
A human being must use them. Someone must push the button.
Satan, the evil powers, cannot push that button. Human beings must do it."

The Dalai Lama
 

"Let your courage mount with difficulties.
There would be no will if there were no resistance."

N. Sri Ram
 

"According to the oral tradition of Witches,
we were once the priests and priestesses of a peasant Pagan religion.
Members of this secret sect met at night beneath the full moon,
for these were the "misfits" and "outcasts" who did not fit into mainstream society.
Little has changed over the centuries and the Witchcraft community still embraces
individuals frequently rejected in mainstream society.
These include gays, lesbians, transgendered individuals,
and other people with the courage to live their lives authentically
in accord with who they are inside their hearts, minds, and spirits."

Raven Grimassi
 

"Common sense is unfortunately not very common."

Anonymous
 

"Just as a stone, a tree, a straw, grain, a mat, a cloth, a pot, and so on,
when burned, are reduced to earth (from which they came), so the body and its sense organs,
on being burned in the fire of Knowledge,
become Knowledge and are absorbed in Brahman,
like darkness in the light of the sun."

-Shankaracharya
 

"The love of one’s country is a splendid thing.
But why should love stop at the border?"

- Pablo Casals
 

"Witchcraft is not evil.
At least not any more than lighting a votive candle,
praying for a sick friend, or carrying a lucky charm is.
However, there are some who do view witchcraft as evil.
This is only because organized religion (primarily the Christian church)
has conditioned them to fear anything which strays from their narrow condemning view.
After all, if you have the ability to fend for yourself,
solve your own problems, and choose your own method of spiritual expression,
why would you need the confined structure of a church?"

Lady Sabrina
 

"When does gold ore become gold?
When it is put through a process of fire.
So the human being during the training becomes as pure as gold through suffering.
It is the burning away of the dross. Suffering has a great redeeming quality.
As a drop of water failing on the desert sand is sucked up immediately,
so we must become nothing and nowhere ... we must disappear."

~Bhai Sahib
 

"We are not evil. We don't harm or seduce people
. We are not dangerous. We are ordinary people like you.
We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult.
This religion is not a joke. We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V.
We are real. We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humor.
You don't have to be afraid of us. We don't want to convert you.
And please don't try to convert us.
Just give us the same right we give you--to live in peace.
We are much more similar to you than you think."

Margot Adler - Wiccan priestess
 

"If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain,
soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone.
Our bible IS the wind and the rain."

Quote from Herbalist Carol McGrath as told to her by a Native American woman.
 

"We should educate people that 'Witch' is not evil but ancient and positive.
The first time I called myself a 'Witch' was the most magical moment of my life."

Margot Adler - Wiccan Priestess
 

"When one defines oneself as Pagan, it means she or he follows an earth or nature religion,
one that sees the divine manifest in all creation.
The cycles of nature are our holy days, the earth is our temple,
its plants and creatures our partners and teachers.
We worship a deity that is both male and female, a mother Goddess and father God,
who together created all that is, was, or will be.
We respect life, cherish the free will of sentient beings, and accept the sacredness of all creation."

Edain McCoy - Wiccan Author
 

A quote from President George W. Bush

"I don't think witchcraft is a religion. I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made."

G.W. Bush (R), as Governor of Texas.
Interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America, 1999-JUN-24.
He disapproved of Wiccan soldiers being given the same religious rights as others in the military.
 

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.
We are more than the sum of our knowledge, we are the products of our imagination. "

Ancient Proverb
 

"!Ama Sua, Ama Kjella, Ama Lllulla! - Don't lie, don't cheat, don't be lazy".

Quechua greeting during Inca times
 

"Witchcraft ... is a spiritual path.
You walk it for nourishment of the soul,
to commune with the life force of the universe,
and to thereby better know your own life."

Christopher Penczak
 

"A wee child toddling in a wonder world,
I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens 
where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds,
the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers
If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan."

Zitkala-Sa
 

"The death of fear is in doing what you fear to do."

Sequichie Comingdeer
 

"I think Scandinavian Paganism, to us here, is more interesting than any other.
It is, for one thing, the latest; it continued in these regions of Europe till the eleventh century;
800 years ago the Norwegians were still worshipers of Odin.
It is interesting also as the creed of our fathers; the men whose blood still runs in our veins,
whom doubtless we still resemble in so many ways."

- Thomas Carlyle
 

"I put a capital N on nature and call it my church."

-Frank Lloyd Wright

"The entire universe is but one vast symbol of God." 

— Thomas Carlysle

“Nature has her proper interest; and he will know
what it is, who believes and feels, that every Thing
has a Life of its own, and that we are all one Life.” 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what
is essential is invisible to the eye.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Although its light is wide and great, the Moon is
reflected in a puddle one inch wide. The whole Moon
and the entire sky is reflected in one dew drop on the grass."

— Dogen

“One doesn't discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”

— Andre Gide

"Man can learn nothing except by going from the
known to the unknown." 

— Claude Bernard

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.”

— Margaret Drabble

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, /
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

— William Shakespeare

“In everything natural there is something marvelous.” 

— Aristotle

“Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit.” – “Called or not called, the god will be there.” 

— ancient Roman saying

“Our knowledge can only be finite,
while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.” 

— Karl Popper

"A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism." 

- Dion Fortune

"Through the Goddess, we can discover our strength,
enlighten our minds, own our bodies, and celebrate our emotions."

- Starhawk

"The Goddess is Alive. 
Magic is afoot." 

- Z. Budapest

"This planet is our home. 
Our life and hers are interdependent." 

- Doreen Valiente

"When we let go of believing we are superior,
we open ourselves to the experience of living in the community of Nature." 

- Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm

"Religion is about creation,
and for that reason religion should be about the earth." 

- Laurie Cabot

"Make no mistake about it, magick is an art form,
and every true magician is an artist." 

- Lon Milo DuQuette

"You see, no matter how important everything else is to magical success,
belief is the most crucial." 

Dorothy Morrison

"No one can give you magickal powers. You have to earn them. 
There is only one way to do this. Practice, practice, practice!" 

- Donald Michael Kraig

"Magic is not always serious or solemn.
It is a joyous celebration and merging with the life-force."

- Scott Cunningham