Alchemy is a symbolic technique which,
together with a desire for positive discoveries
in the field of the natural sciences,
sought to materialize spiritual truths.
-J. E. Cirlot

Alchemy is a series of symbols
intended to convey a major operation
concerning the transmutation of man himself.
-Manly Hall

The underlying theme of alchemy is not about making gold.
It concerns transforming the raw substance of human nature
and releasing its potential for inner divinity,
not through repression or transcendence
but through inner confrontation and integration.
-Liz Greene

I discovered early in my researches
that their doctrine was no mere chemical fantasy,
but a philosophy applied to the world,
to the elements, and to man himself.
-William Butler Yeats

Alchemy was not only the mother of chemistry,
but also the forerunner of our modern psychology of the unconscious.
-Carl Jung

During the "dark ages"
a great deal of time and effort was spent
in attempting to turn dross into gold.
This science or art was called "alchemy."
Here, very roughly, is the recipe that was employed:
First, take you base metal and grind it down into dust.
The, take a quantity of quicksilver (mercury)
and mix it with the base metal.
Then find a way to hold the quick-silver
and make is still and motionless.
Holding the still mixture over a flame - heat it.
Then introduce a single particle of pure gold.
And, in time, the base mixture
will be united with the particle of gold
and the whole will become gold.

I know of no record that claims that the recipe actually worked.

So what were the alchemists talking about?
Are we looking at a perfect simile for quite another process?

The base metal - the ego;
grind it down under pressure.
Quicksilver - the mind;
find a way to make it still and quiet.
The flame - the heart.
The heat of the flame - love,
suffusing the body and the mind.
The particle of gold -
truth, higher knowledge, "wisdom."

Perhaps...
-William Corlett and John Moore

The alchemists had the same idea
of total material diamond immortality,
establishing the immortality of the spirit on the physical plane.
The hermetic philosophers and alchemists
expressed it in a symbolic way.
Their goal was to transform base metal into gold.
The gold stands for material immortality - spiritual gold.
The base metal is our nature and impulses, passions and desires.
-Haridas Chaudhuri

The relationship between the highest and the ordinary state of consciousness
was compared by certain schools of alchemy
to that between the diamond and an ordinary piece of coal.
One cannot imagine a greater contrast,
and yet both consist of the same chemical substance, namely, carbon.
This teaches symbolically the fundamental unity of all substances
and their inherent faculty of transformation.

To the alchemist who was convinced of the profound parallelism
between the material and the immaterial world,
and of the uniformity of natural and spiritual laws,
this faculty of transformation had universal meaning.
It could be applied to inorganic forms of matter
as well as organic forms of life,
and equally to the psychic forces that penetrate both.
-Govinda

Alchemists believe that Nature is the principle
that unifies all things and governs their individual natures.
and they also recognized that everything in Nature
is reflected in ourselves.
-Guy Ogilvy

To the alchemist,
the universal life-giving principle within Nature is spirit,
while the unique essence of each thing is its soul.
These, together with the third principle, the body,
form the tria prima.
-Guy Ogilvy

The ancient alchemist studied
the processes of Nature in her operations
from the volatile to the fixed,
the fluid to the solid,
the essence to the substance,
or the abstract to the concrete,
all of which may be summed up
as the changing of spirit into matter.
-George W. Carey

The transmutation of the base metals into gold
simply meant the process of changing the fixed into the volatile,
or the dematerialization of matter,
either by heat or chemical process.
-George W. Carey

This is true spiritual alchemy:
the gradual transformation of raw matter
into fluidic, etheric, spiritual matter
and, conversely,
the diffusion of that spiritual matter
throughout the physical body
which is thus quickened, vivified and regenerated.
-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

In the material extreme, when it is purified,
the seed of the spirit is to be found.
-Mary Anne Atwood

Whereas the 'lesser work' has as its goal
the regaining of the original purity and receptivity of the soul,
the goal of the 'greater work'
is the illumination of the soul by the revelation of the Spirit.
-Titus Burckhardt

The Great Work of the alchemist
is to restore fallen matter to spirit.
-Guy Ogilvy

Alchemy is based on the view that man,
as a result of the loss of his original 'Adamic' state,
is divided within himself.
He regains his integral nature only when the two powers,
whose discord has rendered him impotent,
are once again reconciled with one another.
-Titus Burckhardt

Alchemical weighing,
which appears to refer to physical mass,
is none other than the mastery of rhythm,
by means of which the powers of the soul
can be influenced.
-Titus Burckhardt

Alchemy is philosophy; it is the philosophy,
the seeking out of 'The Sophia' in the mind.
-Mary Anne Atwood

Alchemy is not armchair philosophy or speculative science.
It is the practice of inner union on all levels of consciousness,
separately and cojoined.
-Ralph Metzner

No solution should be made 

except in its own blood.

-Alchemical Truth

When the soul and body marry,
they birth the philosopher's stone.
-Medieval Alchemical Text

To prepare the philosopher's stone
is less a physical process than a psychic and spiritual one,
and to obtain it, we must study the virtues and realize them inwardly.
On this condition alone will matter obey us,
and will we become true alchemists.
-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

That is the true alchemy...
which can multiply in me that rectangular stone,
which is the corner stone of my life and soul.
-Robert Fludd

The Philosopher's Stone
was the perfected life of the individual,
his own diamond soul.
-Manley Hall

Once you have touched the philosopher's stone
you cannot turn back to iron or brass,
because you are pure gold.
-H. W. L. Poojna

The elixir of life or the philosopher's stone
was that power by means of which all good things could come to pass
wherein all errors and forms of ignorance could be overcome
and where the human being himself would gain complete control
of not only his own life but also the laws governing it.
-Manly Hall

The more one grapples with the alchemical process,
with its inevitable triumphs and disappointments,
the more one comes to understand the Self.
Primal Matter, the Philosopher's Stone and the alchemist are one.
-M. E. Warlick