I myself think that to have a cat is more important than to have a Bible.

If all men lead mechanical, unpoetical lives, this is the real nihilism, the real undoing of the world.

The object of our lives is to look at, listen to, touch, taste things. Without them, - these sticks, stones, feathers, shells, - there is no Deity.

There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful people.

Think of Zen, of the Void, of Good and Evil and you are bound hand and foot. Think only and entirely and completely of what you are doing at the moment and you are free as a bird.

A haiku is the expression of a temporary enlightenment, in which we see into the life of things.

Zen is the unsymbolization of the world.

What is essential is not the answer but the questions; the answers indeed are the death of the life that is in the questions.

The love of nature is religion, and that religion is poetry; these three things are one thing. This is the unspoken creed of haiku poets.

Regarding R. H. Blyth: Blyth is sometimes perilous, naturally, since he's a high-handed old poem himself, but he's also sublime - and who goes to poetry for safety anyway.

Regarding R. H. Blyth: For translations, the best books are still those by R. H. Blyth. . . .

Some of us feel the need to experience life before bending to the will of an arcane society.

It made leaving bearable, knowing I'd had that kind of love in my life. Knowing I'd had the best thing.

As far as how I approach the humor, I think the best comedy is going to happen when I'm myself and act organically to a news item or situation.

I believe in facing reality. But only because I don't like turning my back on it.

It is an error to suppose that courage means courage in everything. Most people are brave only in the dangers to which they accustom themselves, either in imagination or practice.

Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.

People always step up and do things out of the ordinary at the Olympics.

If I'm going to be held captive by social media, I'm going to use it against itself.

Further global progress is now possible only through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order.

The further human society drifts away from nature, the less we understand interdependence .