The menu is not the meal.
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
If you really understand Zen, you can use any book, even the dictionary, because the sound of the rain needs no translation.
Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
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.
Join the dance.
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is.
Little difficulties are made to swell until they fill our horizon while the real big blessings of life are dwindled down to nothing.
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
He not busy being born is busy dying.
Instinct is probably the essence of past experience and knowledge stored up for later use. There are many, you know, who think that this life journey through the world is not the first one we have made. Haven’t you ever come across children who knew things that it was impossible for them to have learned? Have you ever gone to a place for the first time and felt sure that you had been there before? That’s one of the reasons I do not travel much.
So I’ve seen life as one long learning process. And if I see – you know, if I fly on somebody else’s airline and find the experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasn’t in – 21 years ago, then I’d think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I’d like to fly on.
Pain is the price you pay for resisting life.
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
We’ll love you just the way you are if you’re perfect.
Life is trying things to see if they work.
In a mad world, only the mad are sane.
Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.
I do not like to be unkind.
I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.
