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

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

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.

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.

Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.

Take from a man his freedom or his goods and you may have taken his innocence, almost his humanity, as well.

The worst environmental decision you can make as a human being is to have 14 kids.

I am a musician before a writer, and a drawer before a writer. When I lose sight of that, which I do, my work tends to suffer.

A lot of females are openly discussing their experiences as women in the music industry.

People meeting for the first time suddenly relax if they find they both have cats. And plunge into anecdote.

Guy Kay is probably my favorite and the writer I most want to emulate.

Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.

The conservative candidate who ignores moderates is as misguided as the moderate candidate who ignores conservatives.

No, I happen to be one of those people whose memory shuts down under pressure. The answers would come to me in the middle of the night in my sleep! Besides, I am a millionaire.