That knowledge which stops at what it does not know, is the highest knowledge.

The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.

A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation.

The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.

Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.

If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge.

Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course.

The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.

When an archer shoots for enjoyment, he has all his skill; when he shoots for a brass buckle, he gets nervous; when he shoots for a prize of gold, he begins to see two targets.

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.

Never admire a man by his strength; judge him in how he uses it- A way is made by walking it

We are what we read -- and the power of books to transform the minds and personalities of their readers can give cause for anxiety as well as for celebration.

Writers perform the so-called counterfactual thinking all the time. All the time. For most people, counterfactual thingking is a habit, but for writers, it is a necessity

Men know they are sexual exiles. They wander the earth seeking satisfaction, craving and despising, never content. There is nothing in that anguished motion for women to envy.

On the Continent stray cats are judged individually on their merit-some are loved, some are only respected; in England they are universally worshipped as in ancient Egypt.

Now thank we all our God, With hearts and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom his world rejoices.

If you can resolve this transition of [Bashar] Assad, that is absolutely possible, but you have to have a clarity for everybody about the way forward.

A villain who shares one's guilt is inevitably more attractive than a hero convinced of one's innocence.

While we are free to choose, once we have made those choices, we are tied to the consequences of those choices.

I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I've learned to trust my own instincts and I've also learned to take risks.

History is neither written nor made without love or hate.