If one has wealth, it does not mean that it should be thrown away and wife and children should be turned out of doors. It simply means that one must give up attachment of these things!

You may have occasion to possess or use material things, but the secret of life lies in never missing them.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going –
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.

A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.

It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.

Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.

When one loves, one does not calculate.

You shall not stay here grieving...go, cut some beams of wood, and make yourself a large raft with an upper deck that it may carry you safely over the sea.

Freedom, Sancho, is one of the
most precious gifts that Heaven
has bestowed upon men; no treasures
that the earth holds buried or
the seal conceals can compare with
it; for freedom, as for honor,
life may and should be ventured.

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune.

What we create becomes meaningful to us only once we stop creating it and start to think about why we did so.

He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Success is going from failure to failure, without losing enthusiasm.

Acceptance is not submission;
it is acknowledgement of facts
of a situation.
The deciding what you're
going to do about it.

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is
translated through you into action, and because there is
only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.
And if you block it, it will never exist through any other
medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is
not your business to determine
how good it is:
nor how valuable it is;
nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your
business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep
the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your
work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the
urges that motivate YOU.
Keep the channel open...
No artist is pleased...
There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is
only a queer divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that
keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the
others.

Through return to simple living comes control of desires. In control of desires stillness is attained. In stillness the world is restored.

Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.

Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.

There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.

As you breathe in – cherish yourself.
As you breathe out – cherish all beings.

The bud
Stands for all things,
Even for those things that don’t flower,
For everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
Though sometimes it is necessary
To reteach a thing its loveliness,
To put a hand on the brow
Of the flower,
And retell it in words and in touch,
It is lovely
Until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

Great fullness of being, which we experience as happiness, can also be described as love. To be undivided and unfragmented, to be completely present, is to love.