Happiness is not the result of circumstance. It is the result of loving others.

Perhaps the greatest gift we can offer each other is a second chance.

Individuals who deliberately decide not to take offense lead happier, more productive lives.

Such simple and steady acts of kindness are the essence of love, the substance of life. All of us need love; all of us want love. Everything else is a consolation prize. What matters is love.

Hoping and dreaming of a better world are not enough if we are unwilling to work - but when we work towards our dreams, wonderful things can happen.

The happy combination of fortuitous circumstances.

No white man uses his feet the way an Indian does. He talks to the earth.

So many things begin to change when you come at the world from that perspective of more than one right answer.

Did you see more glass?

If you work hard and be persistent, you will achieve whatever you want to do.

Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles.

A spider brings good luck before midnight and bad luck after.

Love ruined people's lives, the way our parents said drugs could.

I cry out from the ashes, burned with sin and shame. I ask you Lord to make me whole again.

Ko Un is a crucial poet for the twenty-first century, and this is an enormously fresh and vivid translation.