He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

When the prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out.

The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.

The harness of waterfalls is the most economical method known for drawing energy from the sun.

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.

In a rich man’s house there is no place to spit but his face.

When you look at the sun during your walking meditation, the mindfulness of the body helps you to see that the sun is in you; without the sun there is no life at all and suddenly you get in touch with the sun in a different way.

Some are made modest by great praise, others insolent.

Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and – since there is no other metaphor – also the soul.

It is good to express a thing twice right at the outset and so to give it a right foot and also a left one. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around.

Language is wine upon the lips.

Pride is an independent, me-oriented spirit. It makes people arrogant, rude and hard to get along with. When our heart is prideful, we don’t give God the credit and we mistreat people, looking down on them and thinking we deserve what we have.

Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

There is a danger that threatens everyone in the church, all of us. The danger of worldliness. It leads us to vanity, arrogance and pride.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.

Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

When they speak, dead frogs fall out of their mouths.

A fool is wise in his eyes.

His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.

I’m kind of a big kettle. It takes time to get boiled, but then I’m always hot.

A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‚darkness‘ on the walls of his cell.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.

A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree’s fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down – bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

Good writing is like a windowpane.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.

A dark cloud is no sign that the sun has lost his light; and dark black convictions are no arguments that God has laid aside His mercy.

Danger is sauce for prayers.

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

Scientists have to have a metaphor. All scientists start with imagination.

Gravity may put the planets into motion, but without the divine Power, it could never put them into such a circulating motion as they have about the Sun; and therefore, for this as well as other reasons, I am compelled to ascribe the frame of this System to an intelligent Agent.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.

I’m the greatest thing that ever lived! I’m the king of the world! I’m a bad man. I’m the prettiest thing that ever lived.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.

In this big ball of people, I’m just one grain of sand on this beach.

Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

Reality is a sliding door.

The sun is gone, but I have a light.

Any top-level athlete, it’s always the same. There’s always that hint of arrogance there… It’s hard to be humble when you’re the best.

On vacations: We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings.

Like getting into a bleeding competition with a blood bank.