“The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.”

The Tao is in all things, in their divisions and their fullness. What I dislike about divisions is that they multiply, and what i dislike about multiplication is that it makes people want to hold fast to it. So people go out and forget to return, seeing little more than ghosts.

Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words.

My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it.

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

Can a man cling to the positive without any negative in contrast to which it is seen to be positive? If he claims to do so he is a rouge or a madman.

For all people strive to grasp what they do not know, while none strive to grasp what they already know; and all strive to discredit what they do not excel in, while none strive to discredit what they do excel in. This is why there is chaos.

Only fools imagine they are already awake. How clearly they understand everything! How easily they distinguish this deception from that reality!

Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.

Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.

The enlightened attention rejects nothing nor welcomes anything-like a mirror it responds equally to all.

Horses have hoofs to carry them over frost and snow; hair, to protect them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their heels. Such is the real nature of horses.

If you have grasped the purpose of life there is no point in trying to make life into something it is not or cannot be.

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words, so I can have a few words with him?

A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.

Tao is the source of both fullness and emptiness. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness.

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

As a rule the person found out in a betrayal of love holds, all the same, the superior position of the two. It is the betrayed one who is humiliated.

When you take a position, you have to accept responsibilities.

If you want to give an advice to someone, you must first be somebody.

I kind of hate it.” Or, “Oh you wait tables? I didn’t know that was something people did.” I say it can be invigorating because, on some level, we have to evaluate what we do and why we do it almost daily.

What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.

The only position for women in SNCC is prone.

We have to explain ourselves to people all the time. We have to say, “Yes, I am a unicorn, believe in me.”

High positions are full of low people!