“Study is to study what cannot be studied. Undertaking means undertaking what cannot be undertaken. Philosophizing is to philosophize about what cannot be philosophized about. Knowing that knowing is unknowable is true perfection.”

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.

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

Ella knows her way around her voice as very few people today. But there are times when she seems to be unaware there are things the human voice just doesn’t do. She does them.

I heard someone say somewhere that it’s possible to write the sickness out of yourself. And who knows, maybe someone will benefit.

If you don’t know what to play, play nothing.

Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.

I’ve always felt that even though a man was not a Christian, he still has to know the truth some way or another. Or if he was a Christian, he could know the truth. The truth itself doesn’t have any name on it to me. And each man has to find this for himself, I think.

Those who see all creatures in themselves And themselves in all creatures know no fear. Those who see all creatures in themselves And themselves in all creatures know no grief.

Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, it’s just god when he’s drunk.