Humility is just as much the opposite of self-abasement as it is of self-exaltation. To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor...

If even dying is to be made a social function, then, grant me the favor of sneaking out on tiptoe without disturbing the party.

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.

Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.

When the sense of the earth unites with the sense of one’s body, one becomes earth of the earth, a plant among plants, an animal born from the soil and fertilizing it. In this union,...

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily,...

You wake from dreams of doom and–for a moment–you know: beyond all the noise and the gestures, the only real thing, love’s calm unwavering flame in the half-light of an early dawn.

At every moment you choose yourself. But do you choose *your* self? Body and soul contain a thousand possibilities out of which you can build many I’s. But in one of them is there a...

In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us.

When you have reached the point where you no longer expect a response, you will at last be able to give in such a way that the other is able to receive, and be grateful....

Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.

The myths have always condemned those who ‘looked back.’ Condemned them, whatever the paradise may have been which they were leaving. Hence this shadow over each departure from your decision.

A heart pulsating in harmony with the circulation of sap and the flow of rivers? A body with the rhythms of the earth in its movements? No. Instead: a mind, shut off from the oxygen...

‘Freedom from fear’ could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.

It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act...

Better than other people.’ Sometimes he says: ‘That, at least, you are.’ But more often: ‘Why should you be? Either you are what you can be, or you are not – like other people.

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.

Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.

The Assembly has witnessed over the last weeks how historical truth is established; once an allegation has been repeated a few times, it is no longer an allegation, it is an established fact, even if...

Trees quiver in the wind,sailing on a sea of mistout of earshot.

Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.

My home drove meinto the wilderness.Few look for me. Few hear me.

A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.

Friendship needs no words – it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.

Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible; not to run away.

Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. a mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning.

Doffing the ego’ssafe glory, he findshis naked reality.

Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

His moral lectureblazed with hate.What could have driven a child that far?

Is life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.

Friendship needs no words.

The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.

The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body’s total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its...

The dizziness in the face of les espaces infinis–only overcome if we dare to gaze into them without any protection. And accept them as the reality before which we must justify our existence. For this...

What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.

Apes. The moon woke them–round the world’s navel revolvedprayer wheels of steps.

To forgive oneself? No, that doesn’t work: we have to be forgiven. But we can only believe this is possible if we ourselves can forgive.

Like the bee, we distill poison from honey for our self-defense–what happens to the bee if it uses its sting is well known.

Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.

Your body must become familiar with its death – in all its possible forms and degrees – as a self-evident, imminent, and emotionally neutral step on the way towards the goal you have found worthy...

To preserve the silence within–amid all the noise. To remain open and quiet, a moist humus in the fertile darkness where the rain falls and the grain ripens–no matter how many tramp across the parade...

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions.

Like wind– In it, with it, of it. Of it just like a sail, so light and strong that, even when it is bent flat, it gathers all the power of the wind without hampering...

Maturity – among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.

Acts of violence– Whether on a large or a small scale, the bitter paradox: the meaningfulness of death–and the meaninglessness of killing.

It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.

There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life’s point of no return.

Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who ‘forgives’ you–out of love–takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.The price you must pay for your own...

It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.