Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.

The more we value things, the less we value ourselves.

To live is to express, and to express you have to create. Creation is never merely repetition. To live is to express oneself freely in creation.

You will never get any more out of life than you expect.

False teachers of the Way of life use flowery words.

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.

Realize the fact that you simply “live” and not “live for”.

When tomorrow comes, you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying.

Living exists when life lives through us – unhampered in its flow, for he who is living is not conscious of living and, in this, is the life it lives.

Life lives; and in the living flow, no questions are raised. The reason is that life is a living now! So, in order to live life whole-heartedly, the answer is life simply is.

Life is simply what our feelings do to us.

I try to live freely from moment to moment, letting things happen and adjusting to them.

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.

He who wants to succeed should learn how to fight, to strive, and to suffer. You can acquire a lot in life, if you are prepared to give up a lot to get it.

To many, the word “success” seems to be a paradise, but now that I’m in the midst of it, it is nothing but circumstances that seem to complicate my innate feeling toward simplicity and privacy.

Masters in all branches of art must first be masters in living, for the soul creates everything.

Life is an ever-flowing process and somewhere on the path some unpleasant things will pop up – it might leave a scar, but then life is flowing, and life running water, when it stops it grows stale.

A simple life is one of plainness, in which profit is discarded, cleverness abandoned, selfishness eliminated, and desires reduced.

Life is never stagnation. It is a constant movement, unrhythmic movement, as well as constant change. Things live by moving and gain strength as they go.

It is the life of perfection which seems to be incomplete, and of fullness which seems to be empty. It is the life which is as bright as light, but does not dazzle. In short, it is a life of harmony, unity, contentment, tranquility, constancy, enlightenment, peace, and long life.

Life is something for which there is no answer; it must be understood from moment to moment.

Real living is living for others.

If you knew you had to fight for your life tomorrow, would you change your training today?

Growth is the constant discovery and understanding in one’s process of living

While we are still alive, we have to discover ourselves, understand ourselves, and express ourselves.

The fact is that we live only on such a small percentage of our potential: you do not allow yourself to be totally yourself, society does not allow you to be totally yourself.

I really dig exercise. When I’m jogging early in the morning, boy! It’s sure refreshing.

Only eat what your body requires, and don’t become carried away with foods that don’t benefit you.

Only actions give to life its strength, as only moderation gives it its charm.

Preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere.

Stand at the neutral point between negative and positive, no longer directing one’s mind to anything.

There is “what is” only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful.

Serene, detached from all results, ready to fight or run, to win or lose, and always ready to laugh at all things, take whatever comes.

Your child is ill you say, or you cannot pay the rent? Very well, accept these facts and face them.

Are they not trouble enough in themselves without adding the aggravation of worry to them?

When one wishes to expand, one must first contract. When one wishes to be strong, one must first be weak. When one wishes to take, one must first give. Everything in this world has the alternative of existence and nonexistence (positive and negative).

There will be calmness when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed.

The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or give trouble. They want to get ahead to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a man of Tao, who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition.

The law of non-interference with nature is a basic principle of Taoism [stating] that one should be in harmony with, not rebellion against, the fundamental laws of the universe.

The Chinese conceived the entire universe as activated by two principles, the Yang and the Yin, the positive and the negative, and they considered that nothing that exists, either animate or so-called inanimate, does so except by virtue of the ceaseless interplay of these two forces.

Matter and energy, Yang and Yin, heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of one indivisible whole.

The mark of genius is the capacity to see and to express what is simple, simply! The really great Zen artist states the utmost in the minimum of lines or effort.

Remember never to assert your self against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but to control it by swinging with it.

All in all, the goal of my planning and doing is to find the true meaning of life – peace of mind. In order to achieve this peace of mind, the teaching of detachment of Taoism and Zen proved to be valuable.

Only sober moderation lasts, and that persists through all time. Only the midpart of anything is preserved because the pendulum of life must have balance, and the midpart is the balance.

Completeness, the now, is an absence of the conscious mind to strive to divide that which is indivisible.

In Buddhism there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water, and when you’re tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.

In ordinary life wu-wei is expressed in “producing and rearing things without taking possession of them” and “doing work but not taking pride in it” – thus the natural “way” stands in complement to all artificial ways such as regulation, ceremonies, etc. This is the reason why the Taoists don’t like formalities and artificialities.

The superior man lets himself be guided; he does not go ahead blindly, but learns from the situation what is demanded of him and then follows.