D.T. Suzuki

Zen has no business with ideas.

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s humdrum life into one of art.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.

A man sits as many risks as he runs.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

There is not human being from whom we cannot learn something if we are interested enough to dig deep.

Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

It is the nature of babies to be in bliss.

There is nothing you can say in answer to a compliment. I have been complimented myself a great many times, and they always embarrass me-I always feel that they have not said enough.

All that appears is devoid of independent existence, just like a magical apparition or a dream.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves.

I didn’t find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

When the desire ain’t on me I don’t need help. When it is on me I don’t want any. See? Like the old fellah that never mended his roof. Said on a wet day he couldn’t do it and on a dry day it was as good as anybody’s.

The test of a man or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.