The origin of the conflict, frustration, and anxiety we experience does not lie in the nature of the world itself but in our distorted conceptions of the world.

Buddhism, I think, is probably facing the single most difficult transition from one historical epoch to another, which is really the transition to modernity.

Consciousness is an emergent, contingent, and impermanent phenomenon. It has no magical capacity to break free from the field of events out of which it springs.

While 'Buddhism' suggests another belief system, 'dharma practice' suggests a course of action. The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe; they are challenges to act.

What is it that makes a person insist passionately on the existence of metaphysical realities that can be neither demonstrated nor refuted? (176)

In taking life for granted, we fail to notice it.

The problem with certainty is that it is static; it can do little but endlessly reassert itself. Uncertainty, by contrast, is full of unknowns, possibilities, and risks.

The greatest threat to compassion is the temptation to succumb to fantasies of moral superiority.

To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is the ground for unsentimental compassion and love.

This body is fragile. It is just flesh. Listen to the heartbeat. Life depends on the pumping of a muscle.

We cannot choose whether to engage with the world, only how to.

The human will to believe is inexhaustible

Nothing can bring joy in your life except yourself.

And who is to say the truth can’t be a miracle?

I remember working on movies like Gettysburg and feeling that Jeff Daniels was kind of a mentor.

You have to take the hits as they come and you have to take the opportunities.

If it’s a revolution it can’t be predictable. And if it’s predictable it can’t be a revolution.

The hard reality is that the omelette has been made and you cannot get your egg back.

Two men look out a window. One sees mud, the other sees the stars.

Mental reflection is so much more interesting than TV it's a shame more people don't switch over to it.

I sold my soul to the devil. Lucifer will have my soul.