Shunryu Suzuki

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. – Shunryu Suzuki

When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

The world is its own magic.

Real practice has no purpose or direction, so it can include everything that comes.

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.

Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It is about everything!

A monarch, when good, is entitled to the consideration which we accord to a pirate who keeps Sunday School between crimes; when bad, he is entitled to none at all.

Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake . . . by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age.

We lie in the lap of immense intelligence.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

It was his peculiar happiness that he scarcely ever found a stranger whom he did not leave a friend; but it must likewise be added, that he had not often a friend long without obliging him to become a stranger.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap.

The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.