Knowledge, idea, belief stands in the way of wisdom.

Its beautiful to be alone. To be alone does not mean to be lonely. it means the mind is not influenced and contaminated by society.

It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

I don't mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom. It is a timeless spiritual truth: release attachment to outcomes, deep inside yourself, you'll feel good no matter what.

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

Throughout life, from childhood, from school until we die, we are taught to compare ourselves with another; yet when I compare myself with another I am destroying myself.

A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is.

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end - you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.

Here is my secret: I don't mind what happens.

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes

This one's for Alaska Young!

We must...forge partnerships with those around us, and begin to dismantle the myth of solitary perfection.

Don't believe everything you hear on the street.

It is a wearisome disease to preserve health by too strict a regimen.

Criticism is the windows and chandeliers of art: it illuminates the enveloping darkness in which art might otherwise rest only vaguely discernible, and perhaps altogether unseen.

I was working on the farm to get in shape, about a mile away from my parents. You know, I did everything as a kid to stay in shape - jogging, work on the farm, driving the tractor. I'll never forget.

When I started writing fiction it always seemed in retrospect (I didn't realise at the time) that it was always caused by environments rather than by incidents and characters.

Life is too short to do anything that's not challenging.

The greatest treasure you can leave your children is a sense of modesty and the advice to follow virtuous persons.