“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.”

Unfortunately complaining is one thing Eeyores are not afraid to do. They grudgingly carry their thimbles to the Fountain of Life, then mumble and grumble that they weren’t given enough.

Those who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere over the rainbow ‘burn their toast a lot,’ said Pooh

Treat gain and loss the same.’ Don’t be Intimidated. Don’t make a Big Deal of anything – just accept things as they come to you.

Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got.

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.

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.

When I get a chance to play golf or go on a boat with good people, take the boat out and put some lobsters on the grill, get the ice-cold beer and the cigars – that’s heaven here on earth.

That feeling when you’re so cold you’d give anything to be warm – I’ve had it before, literally huddled around a candle flame on an ice sheet.

I believe tears are holy, because they show us that the ice of our heart is melting.

A Hot Fudge Sundae and a trashy novel is my idea of heaven.

It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we’d play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.

Ice ages have come and gone. Coral reefs have persisted.

Take away the ice and snow, increase the temperature by even a little, and the realm that makes their lives possible literally melts away.

That was another incredible thing: the opportunity to be in Greenland, a place I had read about in NatGeo a decade before.