Stephen Mitchell Quotes

“He who has let go of hatred
who treats all beings with kindness
and compassion, who is always serene,
unmoved by pain or pleasure,

free of the "I" and "mine,"
self-controlled, firm and patient,
his whole mind focused on me ---
that is the man I love best.”
― anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita

“The man who sees me in everything
and everything within me
will not be lost to me, nor
will I ever be lost to him.

He who is rooted in oneness
realizes that I am
in every being; wherever
he goes, he remains in me.

When he sees all being as equal
in suffering or in joy
because they are like himself,
that man has grown perfect in yoga.”
― Anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita

“And surely of all the stars that perished
long ago,
one still exists.
I think that I know
which one it is--
which one, at the end of its beam in the sky,
stands like a white city . . .”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

“Then he veiled Enkidu’s face like a bride’s.
Like an eagle Gilgamesh circled around him,
he paced in front of him, back and forth,
like a lioness whose cubs are trapped in a pit”
― Stephen Mitchell, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“Now let the gate of sorrow be closed behind me, and let it be sealed with tar and pitch.”
― Stephen Mitchell, The Epic of Gilgamesh