“There are two Paths to the Innermost: the Way of the Mystic, which is the way of devotion and meditation, a solitary and subjective path; and the way of the occultist, which is the way of the intellect, of concentration, and of trained will; upon this path the co-operation of fellow workers is required, firstly for the exchange of knowledge, and secondly because ritual magic plays an important part in this work, and for this the assistance of several is needed in most of the greater operations. The mystic derives his knowledge through the direct communion of his higher self with the Higher Powers; to him the wisdom of the occultist is foolishness, for his mind does not work in that way; but, on the other hand, to a more intellectual and extrovert type, the method of the mystic is impossible until long training has enabled him to transcend the planes of form. We must therefore recognize these two distinct types among those who seek the Way of Initiation, and remember that there is a path for each.” 
― Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“There is a life behind the personality that uses personalities as masks. There are times when life puts off the mask and deep answers unto deep.”
― Dion Fortune quote, The Goat-Foot God

“The difference between magic and meditation methods is the difference between drugs and diet—medicines will do swiftly what diet can only effect slowly, and in critical cases there is no time to wait for the slow processes of dietetics, so it must be either medicines or nothing. Nevertheless, drugs are no substitute for right diet and wholesome regime, and although magic enables a speedy and potent result to be attained, is is only by means of right understanding and right ethics that the position which has been won can be held.”
― Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“We take spiritual initiation when we become conscious of the Divine within us, and thereby contact the Divine without us.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“No enunciation of the Truth will ever be complete, no method of training will ever be suitable for all temperaments, no one can do more than mark out the little plot of infinity which he intends to cultivate, and thrust in the spade, trusting that the soil may eventually be fruitful and free from weeds so far as the bounds he has set himself extend....”
― Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“When we speak of the Path we mean much more than a course of study. The Path is a way of life and on it the whole being must co-operate if the heights are to be won.”
― Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“The man who is an initiate of one of the great Mystery Schools never fears to let his pupils outdistance him, because he knows that it stands him in good stead with his superiors if he is constantly sending up to them aspirants who 'make good.' He therefore never tries to hold back a promising pupil, because he has no need to fear that pupil, if allowed to penetrate into the Mysteries, would spy out the nakedness of the land; he will rather bring back a report of its exceeding richness, and thereby confirm the statements of his teacher and spur his fellow pupils to yet greater eagerness.”
― Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“...unless men work at occultism as they work for the prizes of their professions they will not achieve.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“We may also conceive of the evolution of humanity as a vast army, toiling slowly along its line of march in a great column; and, scouting far ahead of the main body, solitary outriders, swift-mounted, light-armed and without baggage, exploring the way for the rest; spiritual guerrillas, whom Paul referred to as those born out of due season. From time to time we shall see some swift-footed soul draw ahead of the great army of mankind and push on alone into the wilderness. For a period his path is solitary, but presently he catches up with the far-flung line of the scouts, and if able to give the password that proves him to be of their body, is given his place in the ranks of that adventurous company, a boundary-rider of evolution, alone on patrol, yet not out of touch with his comrades, for there are signaling-points along the line, and at certain seasons all gather in to the council.”
― Dion Fortune, The Esoteric Orders and Their Work

“Those without the gate frequently question the wisdom and right of the occultist to guard his knowledge by the imposition of oaths of secrecy. We are so accustomed to see the scientist give his beneficent discoveries freely to all mankind that we feel that humanity is wronged and defrauded if any knowledge be kept secret by its discoverers and not at once made available for all who desire to share in it.  The knowledge is reserved in order that humanity may be protected from its abuse at the hands of the unscrupulous.”
― Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“The critic of the Adepts would form a truer opinion of their attitude if he did not look upon them as guardians of a treasure, grudgingly doling it out to applicants whose rights it was impossible to ignore or defy, but rather as trainers of racehorses, patiently trying beast after beast in the hope that one may ultimately be found that will win the Grand National. The Adept who accepts an unsuitable pupil is guilty of cruelty just as much as the rider who sends a horse at a fence it cannot take.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“Never trust the occultist who tells you that he is the head of a tradition, because if he were, in the first place, he would not tell the fact to the uninitiated, and in the second place he would in all probability be living in great seclusion and inaccessible to all but his immediate subordinates. If a man is a great artist he does not need to inform us of the fact; we shall know him by his pictures that are hung in the galleries of the nation, and we shall, moreover, find that he guards himself from casual acquaintances because of the inroads on his time to which his fame renders him liable. The more eminent a person, the harder he is to approach, not out of any spirit of pride and exclusiveness, but because so many people want to see him that discrimination has to be used in admitting them.”
― Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“It has been well and truly said that in the exoteric church the ceremony is performed by one person for the benefit of the congregation; but in the Lodge the ceremony is performed by the congregation for the benefit of one person.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“A school of esotericism usually arises in connection with some special realization of the Truth, which it sometimes stresses beyond its due proportion to life as a whole, but there will never be found any teaching which has the power to hold together a body of earnest seekers which has not a spark of the divine fire at its heart; therefore respect should be given to all how seek in sincerity, however far from the goal they may appear to be, and all who are engaged in the great Quest should rather try to see the vision which a brother has glimpsed than the special errors to which he has fallen victim.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate

“The body is the vehicle of the mind.”
― Dion Fortune, Psychic Self-Defense

“I well remember it being said to me by an occultist of great experience that two things are necessary for safety in occultism, right motives and right associates.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Psychic Self-Defense

“It is one of the strictest conditions of initiation that occult knowledge may never be sold or used for gain.”
― Dion Fortune, Psychic Self-Defense

“...the neurotic is very often psychic, and the psychic is very often neurotic.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Psychic Self-Defense

“...spirituality alone will not take a man far in the Mysteries; he must have intellectual powers as well.”
― Dion Fortune, What Is Occultism?

“What you contemplate, you touch. What you enter into in imagination, you make yourself one with.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Principles of Esoteric Healing

“A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and if one of the team cannot handle the forces, everybody is going to suffer. A ritual lodge is no place for the well-meaning ineffectual.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Psychic Self-Defense

“...a trained occultist, especially if of high grade, has an exceedingly magnetic personality, and this is apt to prove disturbing to those who are unaccustomed to high- tension psychic forces. For whereas the person who is ripe for development will unfold the higher consciousness rapidly in the atmosphere of a high-grade initiate, the person who is not ready may find these influences profoundly disturbing.”
― Dion Fortune, Psychic Self-Defense

“One cannot blame an organization that picks up an occasional black sheep, one only takes exception if it retains an accumulation of them.”
― Dion Fortune quote, Psychic Self-Defense

“The average man may be capable of benefiting by initiation, or he may not; it also depends upon his capacity; but each individual should have the opportunity of advancing to the highest development of which he is capable.”
― Dion Fortune quote, The Esoteric Orders and Their Work