Everything is chance, or nothing is chance. If I believed the first, I would be unable to live on, but I am not yet fully convinced of the second.

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.

As life becomes harder and more threatening, it also becomes richer, because the fewer expectations we have, the more good things of life become unexpected gifts that we accept with gratitude.

Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.

We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds.

Such words as 'God' and 'Death' and 'Suffering' and 'Eternity' are best forgotten. We have to become as simple and as wordless as the growing corn or the falling rain. We must just be.

Never give up, never escape, take everything in, and perhaps suffer, that's not too awful either, but never, never give up.

Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.

That I should die next week, I would still be able to sit at my desk all week and study with perfect equanimity, for I know now that life and death make a meaningful whole.

I don’t want to be anything special. I only want to try to be true to that in me which seeks to fulfill its promise.

There are moments when I feel like giving up or giving in, but I soon rally again and do my duty as I see it: to keep the spark of life inside me ablaze.

If we could only turn back time

The breath of being is all that matters in this moment.

What are you most thankful for?” she asked.My reply came easily. “Being too blessed to have any hope of answering that question.

Early practice is vital so that performances became totally ingrained and flow from the subconscious.

No one can crave what truly harms him.

I suppose romantically there are fantasies that can still be realized. But not professionally.

Give humanity hope and it will dare and suffer joyfully, not counting the cost - hope with laughter on her banner and on her face the fresh beauty of morning.

I’d say I was a tomboy... I took wood chop in high school and I was very into volleyball and football, and [was] very unaware of anything girly for a long time.

When a baby is in the room with two women, and one is considered more beautiful than the other, the infant's eyes will go to the more beautiful one.

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.