“The right way to go easy is to forget the right way.”

The true man breathes with his heels.

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

Look at this window: it is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light.

All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.

Being is thoughtless-beyond and beneath all categories of thought. Expression is the realization of creative thought. Being is still; expression, moving. But then if I do not strive, who will?

The Way is to man as rivers and lakes are to fish, the natural condition of life.

Those who realise their folly are not true fools.

When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.

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

Standards are different for all things, so the standard set by man is by no means the only ‘certain’ standard. If you mistake what is relative for something certain, you have strayed far from the ultimate truth.

One whose inner being is fixed upon such greatness emits a Heavenly glow. Even though he has this Heavenly glow, others will see him as just a man. Someone who has reached this point will begin to be consistent.

Your mind must become one, do not try to understand with your ears but with your heart. Indeed, not with your heart but with your soul.

Sound intelligence promises victory in every battle.

Great knowledge is universal. Small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter.

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.

The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers – because it lives with those who know how to speak.

The degree of notoriety I have is fine and easy. There’s nothing hysterical about it.

We break the rules, but it’s mostly because we don’t know what the rules are. It’s easy for us to go to certain places, so I’m not surprised that a lot of people were amused by my songwriting style.

However, nothing improves by accident, it requires conscious attention. When you are being bombarded by negatives, improvement, growth and success are easy to forget.

When I wrote I took on the role of the despondent and difficult to understand person. Whereas in life, I was easy to understand, to the point of being simple-minded maybe.

Letters should be easy and natural.

Streetlife serenader never sang on stages, needs no orchestration, melody comes easy, need no vast arrangement to do their harmonizing.

I’m not easy to live with. My wife is a saint.

TV makes it so easy to postpone living for another half hour.