Meditation demands an astonishingly alert mind; it is the understanding of the totality of life in which every form of fragmentation has ceased.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

A daily portion is really all we need. We do not need tomorrow’s supply, for that day has not yet dawned, and its needs are still unborn.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

Don’t run if you can walk. Don’t walk if you can stand. Don’t stand if you can sit. Don’t sit if you can lie down.

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

Part of what confuses people in times of upheaval is that you’re getting so many different points of view and directions and so and so, how to do this and do that. And a lot of it is written in a language that honestly most people cannot understand.

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice… No one can prevent you from being aware of each step you take or each breath in and breath out.

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

My life is mine to remember.

True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that – it is spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

When I feel I’m doing too much, I do less if I can.

If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way.

Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.

I don’t live in the past at all; I’m always wanting to do something new. I make a point of constantly trying to forget and get things out of my mind.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

I hope I have helped to raise the profile of science and to show that physics is not a mystery but can be understood by ordinary people.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

When you’re outside, and everything is highland, it’s like nature has its own sound, and that’s one of my favorite sounds. I really loved sitting still silently outside, in a tree or in a bush, to just think.

My father wasn’t around when I was a kid, and I used to always say, ‚Why me? Why don’t I have a father? Why isn’t he around? Why did he leave my mother?‘ But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, ‚I don’t know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?‘

Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration.

Japan’s very interesting. Some people think it copies things. I don’t think that anymore. I think what they do is reinvent things. They will get something that’s already been invented and study it until they thoroughly understand it. In some cases, they understand it better than the original inventor.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.

The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.

I like to take it easy.

Cycling can be lonely, but in a good way. It gives you a moment to breathe and think, and get away from what you’re working on.

Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching, you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence.

Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world.

Me is a common sense man. That mean when me explain things, me explain it in a very simple way; that mean if I explain it to a baby, the baby will understand too, you know.

It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

Listen, I think that people want a president who is going to be interested in the things that keep them up at night, the things that are weighing on them, the things that are debilitating and can be addressed.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.

I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.

Ours is a nation of laws: of citizens who live under them and for the citizens who enforce them. So, to a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than simply holler at each other. Let’s seek to heal rather than to wound each other.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.

To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one’s experiences in common.

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

Forever is composed of nows.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.

The gigantic tension before the shooting of an arrow, and the total relaxation seconds later, is my way of connecting to the universe.