He who has mastered the true nature of life does not labor over what life cannot do. He who has mastered the true nature of fate does not labor over what knowledge cannot change.

Understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest.

Only he who has no use for the empire is fit to be entrusted with it.

The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.

The sage is still not because he takes stillness to be good and therefore is still. The ten thousand things are insufficient to distract his mind - that is the reason he is still.

The Spirit Tower has its guardian, but unless it understands who its guardian is, it cannot be guarded.

When men do not forget what can be forgotten but forget what cannot be forgotten - that may be called true forgetting.

The man who has forgotten self may be said to have entered Heaven.

Men all pay homage to what understanding understands, but no one understands enough to rely upon what understanding does not understand and thereby come to understand.

You can't discuss the ocean with a well frog - he's limited by the space he lives in. You can't discuss ice with a summer insect - he's bound to a single season.

The petty thief is imprisoned but the big thief becomes a feudal lord.

Forget the past. Look ahead, full of opportunities.

...there can be no justification for a society in which a man is expected to manufacture the weapons for his own murderers.

Because we are human. We adapt, we adjust, and we think too damn much.

You don’t have to explain yourself to anyone. It’s your life, live it in whatever way is best for you.

Would you rather be right or free?

How we [Americans] move [on climate] will determine the international direction. To lead, we must act.

Towards the end of 2003 it was hard to get through training - and the darkest point was when a doctor told me there was a possibility I could end up in a wheelchair.

If you don't have passion, change.

The more auditions you go on, the more you will learn not to take it personally.

The worst danger of the mystic is as always a quest of spiritual privilege leading to aloofness from the common lot.