We emphasize straightforwardness. You should be true to your feelings, and to your mind, expressing yourself without any reservations. This helps the listener to understand more easily.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

True communication depends upon our being straightforward with one another... But the best way to communicate may be just to sit without saying anything.

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few

Those who are attached only to the result of their effort will not have any chance to appreciate it, because the result will never come.

A mind full of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, or habits it not open to things as they are.

The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes... Zen practice is to open up our small mind.

In our practice we have no particular purpose or goal, nor any special object of worship.

Zen is nothing to get excited about.

To live in the realm of Buddha nature means to die as a small being, moment after moment.

In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha.

No writer should minimize the factor that affects everyone but is beyond control: luck.

What makes a comedian has nothing to do with religion. Think of Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Jackie Gleason, who were all Catholics.

Don't wait for a disaster to get to know your neighbors.

When resources become skimpy, human beings don't suddenly cooperate to conserve what's left. They fight to the last scrap for possession of a diminishing resource.

All human things Of dearest value hang on slender strings.

"This - is now my way - where is yours"? Thus did I answer those who asked me "the way". For the way - it does not exist!

Some of the best dramatic actors have started in comedy.

My childhood in the Soviet Union was not terrible, it was very joyful.

All reduction of people to objects, all imposition of labels and patterns to which they must conform, all segregation can lead only to destruction.

You can't just turn your heart off like a faucet; you have to go to the source and dry it out, drop by drop.