Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? have you reckon’d the earth much?
Have you practis’d so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves. Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find.

What is proper to hear, no one, human or divine, will hear before you.

"Ne te quaesiveris extra." (Do not seek for things outside of yourself)

Let me attain no envied wealth, let me not plunder cities, neither be taken in turn, and face life in the power of another.

Exodus 23:8–“And thou shalt take no gift; for a gift blindeth them that have sight and perverteth the words of the righteous.

Protect what belongs to you at all costs; don't desire what belongs to another.

I no longer wish to look at dead things.

Ultimately no one can hear in things — books included — more than he already knows. If you have no access to something from experience, you will have no ear for it.

Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire.

Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except your self.

Do not let the enemy see your spirit.

Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves.

Re-examine all that you have been told, dismiss that which insults your soul.