The menu is not the meal.
Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.
Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members.
Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!
Every success is the mother of countless others.
I accept chaos, I’m not sure whether it accepts me.
If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.
My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.
And you know, there’s less charm in life when you think about death–but it’s more peaceful.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
There ain’t no freedom when you’ve got a worrying mind.
One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died.
If what you’re doing isn’t working, change it.
I have been at it ten years. I collect them so that they will not be lost to America. We have no Egyptian mummies here, nor any relics of the Battle of Waterloo nor any curios from Pompeii. It is strictly American.
Seeing things that are bothering you written down takes away their power. It gives you a perspective. Helps you contain them.
