Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life… Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous.

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

I’m not a big believer in trying to jam stuff down somebody’s throat: ‚You’re going to do it my way.‘ I’d rather show by example and live my life and have people say, ‚You know what, I want to live like Joel has. He’s got peace and joy, and he seems content.‘

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.

The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

It seems like a lot of people seek their peace in things. And most of us are not even satisfied with the things we have… we always want more.

At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.

Base souls have no faith in great individuals.

History should be written as philosophy.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before Heaven and Earth. Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change. It operates everywhere and is free from danger. It may be considered the mother of the universe. I do not know its name; I call it Tao.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.

I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.

We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.

There’s a lot of pressure putting an album out all over the world and hoping people everywhere like it.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.

The great quest of life has always been to discover truth.

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?

Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.

To do a great right do a little wrong.

Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

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.

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

Wise men make more opportunities than they find.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

It always seems to me so odd that when a man dies, he takes out with him all the knowledge that he has got in his lifetime whilst sowing his wild oats or winning successes. And he leaves his sons or younger brothers to go through all the work of learning it over again from their own experience.

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.

One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.

Religion is not a department of life; it is something that enters into the whole of it.

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

Our best thoughts come from others.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.

Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief.

The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.