“One sometimes gets the impression that those intimidating words are there to keep us from understanding. That way, the scholars can appear Superior, and will not likely be suspected of Not Knowing Something.”

The Eeyore Educational System sees childhood as a waste of time, a luxury that society cannot afford . . . Put children in school at the earliest age possible; load them down with homework; take away their time, their creativity, their play, their power; then plug them into machines.

The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much.

The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can’t save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.

No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value.

I think, therefore I am confused.

A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning.

Sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of The Vinegar Tasters.

Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and unamusing way. They provide a lot of information. It’s just that there is Something More, and that Something More is what life is really all about.

As any old Taoist walking out of the woods can tell you, simple-minded does not necessarily mean stupid.

If people were superior to animals, they’d take good care of them,” said Pooh.

The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don’t look clearly and objectively at situations, they don’t recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.

The Universe knows what it’s doing. So don’t develop a big ego, and don’t be afraid.

Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.

Enjoy the simple, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work.

From the Taoist point of view, the natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.

A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care, wisdom does.

The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

It was one of the most exciting, perfect evenings of my life, my solo debut at Carnegie Hall. And knowing we were all there to raise money for Gay Men’s Health Crisis made the evening an extraordinary experience.

Historical judgement is not a variety of knowledge, it is knowledge itself; it is the form which completely fills and exhausts the field of knowing, leaving no room for anything else.

To despise theory is to have the excessively vain pretension to do without knowing what one does, and to speak without knowing what one says.

I have lifted my plane . . . for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth into the air without knowing the uncertainty and the exhilaration of first-born adventure.

I actually don’t think that I’m that much smarter than anybody else. It’s just that I frequently just seem to know what to do, and I think that’s wisdom.

The fulfilment that is being in love with God is not the product of our knowledge and choice. It is God’s gift.

People almost always do great things without knowing how to do them, and are quite surprised to have done them.