Quotes can be a guide. Can be a milestone and uplifting
Some quotes are likely to be misunderstood and hence dangerous. Here is one from Ramana
M.: Who is a Master? He is the Self after all. According to the stages of the development of the mind the Self manifests as the Master externally. The famous ancient saint Avadhuta said that he had more than 24 Masters. The Master is one from whom one learns anything. The Guru may be sometimes inanimate also, as in the case of Avadhuta. God, Guru and the Self are identical.
A spiritual-minded man thinks that God is all-pervading and takes God for his Guru. Later, God brings him in contact with a personal Guru and the man recognises him as all in all. Lastly the same man is made by the grace of the Master to feel that his Self is the Reality and nothing else. Thus he finds that the Self is the Master.
(From ‘Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi’, Talk 23)
The reason it is dangerous is because 99.9999% of the people only know self as either the body or ego. And reading the above it boosts their ego and that plummets them further down
Part of the problem of the quote is the translation. If you use the word atman which signifies the spiritual self, the son of God then there is less chance of misunderstanding.
M.: Who is a Master? He is the Atman after all. According to the stages of the development of the mind the Atman manifests as the Master externally. The famous ancient saint Avadhuta said that he had more than 24 Masters. The Master is one from whom one learns anything. The Guru may be sometimes inanimate also, as in the case of Avadhuta. God, Guru and the Self are identical.
A spiritual-minded man thinks that God is all-pervading and takes God for his Guru. Later, God brings him in contact with a personal Guru and the man recognises him as all in all. Lastly the same man is made by the grace of the Master to feel that his Atman is the Reality and nothing else. Thus he finds that the Atman is the Master.
Bhavin