There is always a touch of sadness around the most beautiful things in life !.

The tighter you squeeze, the less you have. The best leaders of all, the people know not they exist. They turn to each other and say We did it ourselves. The mind that does not understand is the Buddha. There is no other. •Ma-Tsu You cannot describe it or draw it. You cannot praise it enough or perceive it. No place can be found in which to put the Original Face; it will not disappear even when the universe is destroyed. •Mumon Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung. •Zen Saying No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself. •Tilopa When you pass through, no one can pin you down, no one can call you back. •Ying-An There are no mundane things outside of Buddhism, and there is no Buddhism outside of mundane things. •Yuan-Wu The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. •Robert M. Pirsig Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it's dark. •Zen Proverb Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves.

One who is in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.

Beginning a Lenten series on prayer: If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world: at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.

There must be some reason why a man must be convinced, while a woman must be persuaded.

Civilization is a progress from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity toward a definite, coherent heterogeneity.

And all to leave what with his toil he won, To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son.

A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience. -King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came.

Thee too, my Paridel! she mark'd thee there, Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair, And heard thy everlasting yarn confess The Pains and Penalties of Idleness.

Four-word story of failure: Hired, tired, mired, fired.

And sleep in dull cold marble. -King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Pity is not natural to man. Children and savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; but we have not pity unless we wish to relieve him.

In private grief with careless scorn. In public seem to triumph and not to mourn.

It's easier to apologize than ask for permission.

He is well paid that is well satisfied. -The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Since you have forsaken the world and turned wholly to God, you are symbolically dead in the eyes of men; therefore, let your heart be dead to all earthly affections and concerns, and wholly devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. For you must be well aware that if we make an outward show of conversion to God without giving Him our hearts, it is only a shadow and pretence of virtue, and no true conversion. Any man or woman who neglects to maintain inward vigilance, and only makes an outward show of holiness in dress, speech, and behavior, is a wretched creature. For they watch the doings of other people and criticize their faults, imagining themselves to be something when in reality they are nothing. In this way they deceive themselves. Be careful to avoid this, and devote yourself inwardly to His likeness by humility, charity, and other spiritual virtues. In this way you will be truly converted to God.

Hubert Humphrey talks so fast that listening to him is like trying to read Playboy magazine with your wife turning the pages.