Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water.

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.

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

Unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can't expect them to help protect and care for it.

When we start to feel anxious or depressed, instead of asking, "What do I need to get to be happy?" The question becomes, "What am I doing to disturb the inner peace that I already have?"

Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.

If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

Wherever you go you will find your teacher, as long as you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

I don't believe in miracles, only unexplained facts.

I recommend doing some sort of acting class, something that can eventually get you in front of an agent or a manager, and practice is very important.

Twin miracles of mascara, her eyes looked like the corpses of two small crows that had crashed into a chalk cliff.

Remember that, however patient your study, you will never in adult life learn any language perfectly; the best you can hope for is to be a bore.

Capitalism has resulted in material well-being but spiritual bankruptcy.

Portray the world for what it is, and you will find truth.

The sheen of ocean gleams on the blue fish-plate.

Some say that gleams of a remoter world Visit the soul in sleep — that death is slumber, And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumber Of those who wake and live.

We learn many virtues in our Christian families. Above all, we learn to love, asking nothing in return.