A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.

If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: With mindfulness, you can see that she is unhappy, that she is suffering. You can see her wrong perceptions. You can see that she is not beautiful when she says things that are unkind.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

If we don’t plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don’t have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don’t have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

If you’re in a forest, the quality of the echo is very strange because echoes back off so many surfaces of all those trees that you get this strange, itchy ricochet effect.

We’re in the last days, man – I truly, in my heart, believe that. It’s written. I could go on with biblical situations and things my grandma told me. But it’s about being at peace with myself and making good with the people around me.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

Sensual love deceives one as to the nature of heavenly love; it could not do so alone, but since it unconsciously has the element of heavenly love within it, it can do so.

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

If you’re holding out for universal popularity, I’m afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time.

Life is precious.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.

In the morning, I practice 15 minutes of yoga.

What we call Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

We cannot learn men from books.

Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

Genius is patience.

One Buddha is not enough; we need to have many Buddhas.

We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature.

People invest in businesses that they believe have the leadership, mission and team to grow and operate profitably.

Rashness belongs to youth; prudence to old age.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

Kids will remind you that, even though you’ve gone down a road 100 times, it’s brand new for them – and that’s healthy.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Here ends my forever memorable first High Sierra excursion. I have crossed the Range of Light, surely the brightest and best of all the Lord has built. And, rejoicing in its glory, I gladly, gratefully, hopefully pray I may see it again.

Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.

Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live.

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed – chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.