Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.

The answers have the question in common. Therefore the question underlies the answers.

A child of five could understand this. Fetch me a child of five.

They say that “he who flies highest, falls farthest”—and who am I to argue? But we can’t forget that “he who doesn’t flap his wings, never flies at all.” And with that, I’ll stop trying to convince myself that I can’t fail; how dull the whole thing would be if that were true.

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages.

Progress doesn’t come from early risers—progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

My favorite time is before sunrise when it’s still structurally impossible for me to start berating myself about having wasted the whole day.

The most decisive actions of our life—I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future—are, more often than not, unconsidered.

To know what one ought to do is certainly the hardest thing in life. “Doing” is comparatively easy.

Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself and see if we may not eff it after all.

Looking back on things, the view always improves.

What is this mind? / Who is hearing these / [tab in] sounds? / Do not mistake any state / [tab in ] for Self realization. / Continue to ask yourself: / What is it that hears?

One must always tell what one sees. Above all, which is more difficult, one must always see what one sees.

To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.

After the ecstasy, the laundry.

The great man is one who never loses his child’s heart.

Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does.

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.

Don’t fight forces, use them.

God does not die on the day when we see stupid leave in a personal theory, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renew the daily, of wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

The ancient teachings illumine the mind and the mind illumines the ancient teachings.

Even if I could utter a wise word, the hearing of which would guarantee you instant enlightenment, it would still be like throwing garbage on your heads.

All my life, I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.

Just an FYI: “Thursday the 12th” is just as rare as “Friday the 13th.”

One can’t write directly about the soul. Looked at, it vanishes.

No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you’ve already had.

The past is never where you think you left it.

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.