c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Do much more than you are being paid for today because someday, you will be paid much more than you are doing.
— George Bank
The bad, icky and stinky things that happen sometimes should never be allowed to have an adverse effect over the good, lovely and beautiful things happening everyday.
— Azhar  Ali
When you get into bed with evil incarnate, it always takes the covers
— The Tick
Sometimes what makes us insecure and vulnerable becomes the fuel we need to be overachievers. The antidote for a snakebite is made from the poison, and the thing that made you go backward is the same force that will push you forward.
— T.D. Jakes, Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits
The only true disability is the inability to accept and respect differences.
— Tanya Masse
You don’t want to get to the top of the ladder only to find out you had it leaning up against the wrong wall.
— Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul
Two things define you in this life. Your attitude when you are at your highest and your attitude when you are at your lowest. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom in order to recognize and define what truly matters.
— Tanya Masse
Don’t be afraid to fail. The greatest failure of all is not to act when action is needed.
— John Wooden
Sometimes life gives you a little punch in the stomach... You just gotta catch your breath and keep going.
— Tanya Masse
You can turn ANYTHING negativeinto the positive
— Pattimari Sheets Cacciolfi
We are not entitled to ALL of anything, not even ourselves... and rightfully so.
— Tanya Masse
I realized I needed my own love more than the people I selflessly gave it to.
— Alishah Khan
Courage and determination are qualities often overlooked in conflict. However, both foes can possess both qualities. The difference is which one counts goodness with courage and determination that more times than not overcome evil.
— S. Foster
Self-destruction is inevitable because existence is a full-time job.
— Benjamin DeHaven, Confessions of a Self-Help Writer: The Journal of Michael Enzo
Old times, sad times. I feel better about them now than I did then.
— Anita Brookner, Brief Lives
How you matter is defined by the things that matter to you. You matter as much as the things that matter to you do.
— John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
We all have our things that we would rather live without. It's how we live with them when we have no choice that makes us or breaks us.
— Tanya Masse
Never consider yourself smart when you don't know how to treat people correctly.
— Alessandra Anida
Want less, need less, live more.
— Tanya Masse, Stairway to Awesomeness!: 30 Fundamental Steps to Living a Life of Awesomeness!
In this life of our' there will be leaders and there will be followers',, You Lead' and when you must follow follow GOD'.
— Jasiah Rosariio
Gratitude is a way of contentment.
— Miss Brit, Real Talk: Quotes to Get You Through to Becoming a Better You!
There is a high price for cheap thrills.
— Miss Brit, Real Talk: Quotes to Get You Through to Becoming a Better You!
All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.
— Jean-Luc Goddard
Whatever circumstances you were born into, whatever family life and education you had or didn't have, you came here to make your dreams come true, and no matter where you are now, you are fully equipped with everything you need to do it!
— Rhonda Byrne, Hero
People cannot live forever, but memories can. Never pass up an opportunity to create awesome memories with your special ones.
— Tanya Masse, Stripping Away the Insanity of Life & Parenthood!
Taking care of yourself, taking time for yourself & rewarding yourself is NOT selfish. It’s important & absolutely necessary!
— Tanya Masse, Stairway to Awesomeness!: 30 Fundamental Steps to Living a Life of Awesomeness!
If you think someone is AWESOME, tell them! The world NEEDS more of THAT!
— Tanya Masse
Don't let the way people are, disrupt your day. Understand them for who they are, the good & the bad, but keep a bond with Serenity.
— Ace Antonio Hall
No matter what happens, you can get through this day. Inhale. Focus on the word, 'relax. Exhale. Say, 'I can do this!' And then do it.
— Ace Antonio Hall
What messes us up a lot in this life is setting our expectations way too high and then being ashamed when we fail. What is worse is when we allow other people to make us feel ashamed for failing. What is worse than that is hiding and lying about our failure. It’s ok to fail, especially when it’s a significant life change and you gotta stand up for that right in this life.
— Tanya Masse
Older doesn't always mean wiser. It just means that you've had more time to do the same things over and over again- right, wrong, and different.
— Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
Acknowledging awesomeness is powerful, contagious, important and necessary!
— Tanya Masse
Money - it can buy you a moment of glee but not a lifetime of happiness.
— Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
Sometimes, all it takes is your smile (even if forced) & a domino effect of smiles happen ... infectious.
— Ace Antonio Hall
If you get to a point where something happens today to stress you out, take a breath & center your thoughts on peace. Ignored thoughts die.
— Ace Antonio Hall
Without making the best of yourself, your life expression remains incomplete.
— Isaac Maloba
Compensate the lack of love from the world with an abundance of self-love. Work on happiness inside. The external world will respond.
— Ace Antonio Hall
The Ideal I live for in Life “I value the ideal of living in eternal salvation where I am eternal prevailing in all things through Christ Jesus while walking on earth now.”Daily prayer to commit my spirit to Jesus“Lord Jesus Christ, into your hands I commit my spirit now.
— Cessza Gumede
Don't go around saying,"Oh if only I did so and so then so and so would not have happened!Instead,be thankful it happened.
— Detective Rachel me.
Perfection doesn't exist here, AWESOME does.
— Tanya Masse
Hana yori dango. Dumplings over flowers. It basically means that someone should value needs over wants, substance over appearance. As in, make sure you have food and shelter before you burn money on something extravagant. And, you know, choose genuine friends who will be there for you over pretty, shallow ones. Don't get carried away by beauty if it leaves you empty.
— Amanda Sun, Ink
Do things that count, but don't count the things you do.
— Tanya Masse
Many of us follow the commandment 'Love One Another.' When it relates to caregiving, we must love one another with boundaries. We must acknowledge that we are included in the 'Love One Another.
— Peggi Speers
Your opinion should always be based on what you have seen with your own eyes, what you have heard with your own ears and what you have felt with your own heart.
— Tanya Masse, Stairway to Awesomeness!: 30 Fundamental Steps to Living a Life of Awesomeness!
Realize clarity from calamity.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
You NEED to look back to remember the awesome memories, to remember the positive lessons you have learned, to help someone else learn from what you have lived and to see how far you have come.
— Tanya Masse, Stairway to Awesomeness!: 30 Fundamental Steps to Living a Life of Awesomeness!
Really think about what you want your eulogy to say about you, then live THAT.
— Tanya Masse, Stairway to Awesomeness!: 30 Fundamental Steps to Living a Life of Awesomeness!
My plans for this day are simple: Step one accomplished, I woke up. Now take a moment to be thankful for my gift. The gift of another chance. I have been blessed to have another day with my loved ones and the people I care about. Next step, Choose to be Happy. Remembering that it is a choice. If this were to be my last day, I would not want to live it with hate, anger or discontent in my heart. Last step, Attack Life! Remind myself to never take the gift of another day for granted, because unfortunately this morning there are many that will not complete step one.
— Joe Bailey
Rain. Tumble, bumble and, fall on me. Any old day, any old way. Come for a visit, or come for a stay. Rain, rain, don't go away.
— Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
No one will help you when you are left with problems. so plan how to face the crucial situations alone. God doesn't give a problem which you cant solve.
— Mohd Riyaz Ali
He who has a mind has thoughts and he who has thoughts has vision! Think vision. Produce vision!
— Darnaya Darice
In this journey called "Life" I've learned that God never consults our past to determine our future" ~Lá Tanyha Boyd
— La Tanyha Boyd, Spiritual Food for Thought: 31 Inspirational Quotes to Jump Start Your Day
I belong to the divine source from which I originated.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
The planet is littered with irresponsible gods.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Money can buy you everything to fill your time but it cannot buy time itself. And things are definitely not time.
— Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
Life equates to being fairly simple at times. Although we have the tendency and unbelievable ability to complicate things. So I suggest we go to the basics. Do unto others as you would have others do unto your children. Yes, your children. Because they are the ones that will be left behind to live their lives in the world that we have created.
— Joe Bailey
It was necessary, we felt, to thoroughly terrify our opponents, so that even in hollow victory, they would learn to fear every sunrise ...
— Hunter S. Thompson, Screwjack
Don't pound your chest when it's all good, then blame God when it's all bad.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Be better than yesterday.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
What we possess owns us, and we absolutely own nothing.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
The companion of patience is silence.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Rise up to wise up.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Careful not to blur the lines between what belongs to characters, and what does not belong to you. Even 'reality tv' is scripted. Don't get it twisted. ~T.F. Hodge
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
What is different is not necessarily dangerous, and what is similar is not always secure.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
In the company of ignorance, be silent…and run!
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Did you ever ask yourself if each one of us pursued a high educational degree, who would do the skilled manual work? Craftsmanship may not earn us the money we want but that does not mean we should scorn on anyone doing it. We are obliged to be respectful and grateful to anyone using their hands to clean our households, trim our hedges,carpentry our furniture, farm our food, crafts the objects we collect and gift, style our hairs, etc. Next time you encounter a crafts person acknowledge their manual competence.
— Gloria D. Gonsalves
Rules, laws and codes become obsolete among the self-governed.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
I'd rather talk to myself then a fella' that's mad about how right he is.
— D.L. Greenlee
When you’re being celebrated and flying high, don’t allow fanatics (fans) to elevate you so far out that you forget whose sky it is.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
In the company of ignorance, be silent...or join the suffering.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Death follows stagnation
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
One who rules is ruled.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Diet corresponding to blood type, not food hype.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
God has prepared a path for everyone to follow.
— Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Haters' don't hate you, they hate self and project the energy outward because there is no courage to confront internal fears. Therefore, ignore hate or else it becomes you, also.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
I am what I am, and I don't apologize for being honest.
— Rusty Blackwood
It's not enough to know pain
—  you must know how to redirect it's force.
Waste no time lamenting with regard to what is lacking. In such instances, immediately turn focus toward what is to be...and remain poised to receive that which is due.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Don't rush to fellowship at the church, temple or mosque if you don't do so at the house - first. "Charity begins at home".
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
If someone you love and care for is determined to traverse the path of despair, natural law obliges that they ‘will’ regardless of any and all efforts to redirect their lowly path.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Ignorance is not bliss
—  it is a sure path to annihilation.
Do not hate someone else’s ‘shine’…but have enough courage to look in the mirror and see the truth for what it is.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
When they bring the drama, get silent, don't react...and watch what happens (not to you, but those who habitually thrive on your 'willing' participation).
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Each one comes to their own understanding and recognition of truth in their own time, not in yours.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Like JJ Abrams,  creators just want to tell a story and entertain people. So why only focus in one way of telling it?Give readers another way to connect with your story.  Entertainment does not need to be contained in one medium. Think about telling your story in many mediums.
— Anne-Rae Vasquez, Doubt
Priorities are simple to establish
—  what is desire and what is necessity?
No matter how much and how often - 'things' will never compensate for loss or absence...no matter how guilty a parent feels.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
One who seeks to control others is one who suffers from the affliction of fear.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Healing comes by three avenues; what one eats, thinks and celebrates.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Sometimes, rather than just think about it, we need to feel about it. The intellect is limited or finite, while intuition connects to a sea of unlimited consciousness that expands far beyond time and space (as we know it).
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
If he lacks verbal expression of it, you may find his love profoundly in his works, deeds and creativity; so recognize rather than criticize.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Doing things for others can make the 'giver' happy, but trying to change or control another will drive you crazy, because it cannot be sustained. One must give without expectation(s) and allow others, even your offspring, the opportunity of self-determination -- even when you "perceive" danger on the road ahead; each spiritual journey has a right to its own fulfillment. We must learn how to stay in our lane.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
CAPITALISM: If everything worked without need of repair, upgrade or replacement, then peaceful minds and prosperity would prevail among the masses rather than just the few who control markets.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Streams of conscious ‘knowing’ flows like the Nile when one is open from within.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Upon examination of a people’s history, beware the story teller’s motives.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Have an open mind! Have an empty cup!
— Tae Yun Kim, The Silent Master: Awakening the Power Within
Be the story teller in your life...never let anyone dictate what you’re about.
— Robbie Thomas
Choosing to love, in spite of all its complexities, is the only freedom there is.
— Chriscinthia Blount
Will doesn't have to be struggle!
— Tae Yun Kim, The Silent Master: Awakening the Power Within
There's nothing in life you can't accomplish, it's yours to have to be accomplished!
— Robbie Thomas
A Set Back is only a Set Up for a Come Up!
— Antwan 'Ant' Bank$
Good is not always good.
— Dejan Stojanovic, The Creator
I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.
Not being tense but ready.Not thinking but not dreaming.Not being set but flexible.Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.
— Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
...it's like this. Sometimes, when you've a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you'll never get it swept. And then you start to hurry. You work faster and faster and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you're out of breath and have to stop--and still the street stretches away in front of you. That's not the way to do it.You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that's how it ought to be.And all at once, before you know it, you find you've swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. what's more, you aren't out of breath. That's important, too... (28-29)
— Michael Ende, Momo
Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.
— Zhuangzi, Nan-Hua-Ch'en-Ching, or, the Treatise of the transcendent master from Nan-Hua
It's like you took a bottle of ink and you threw it at a wall. Smash! And all that ink spread. And in the middle, it's dense, isn't it? And as it gets out on the edge, the little droplets get finer and finer and make more complicated patterns, see? So in the same way, there was a big bang at the beginning of things and it spread. And you and I, sitting here in this room, as complicated human beings, are way, way out on the fringe of that bang. We are the complicated little patterns on the end of it. Very interesting. But so we define ourselves as being only that. If you think that you are only inside your skin, you define yourself as one very complicated little curlique, way out on the edge of that explosion. Way out in space, and way out in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you're a complicated human being. And then we cut ourselves off, and don't feel that we're still the big bang. But you are. Depends how you define yourself. You are actually--if this is the way things started, if there was a big bang in the beginning-- you're not something that's a result of the big bang. You're not something that is a sort of puppet on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. When I meet you, I see not just what you define yourself as--Mr so-and- so, Ms so-and-so, Mrs so-and-so--I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I know I'm that, too. But we've learned to define ourselves as separate from it. 
— Alan W. Watts
It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.
— Jon J. Muth
Commander, I always used to consider that you had a definite anti-authoritarian streak in you.”“Sir?”“It seems that you have managed to retain this even though you are authority.”“Sir?”“That’s practically zen.
— Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay
The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
— Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution
When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
— Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution
It is a wretched thing that the young men of today are so contriving and so proud of their material posessions. Men with contriving hearts are lacking in duty. Lacking in duty, they will have no self-respect.
— Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.
— Dōgen
Until today, it really pissed me off that I'd become this totally centered Zen Master, and nobody had noticed. Still, i'm doing the little FAX thing. I write little HAIKU things and FAX them around to everyone. When i pass people in the hall at work, I get toally ZEN right in everyone's hostile little FACE.
— Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Nothing can be gained by extensive study and wide reading. Give them up immediately.
— Dōgen, A Primer Of Soto Zen
Preoccupied with a single leaf you won't see the tree.
— Vagabond
The baby looks at things all day without winking; that is because his eyes are not focused on any particular object. He goes without knowing where he is going, and stops without knowing what he is doing. He merges himself within the surroundings and moves along with it. These are the principles of mental hygiene.
— Zhuangzi
I have no news of my coming or passing away--the whole thing happened quicker than a breath
— ask no questions of the moth.
Consider your own place in the universal oneness of which we are all a part, from which we all arise, and to which we all return.
— David Fontana
When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.
— Dōgen
He knows not where he's going,For the ocean will decide,Its not the destination,It's the glory of the ride
— Edward Monkton, Zen Dog
Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way. In an exact sense, the only thing we actually can study in our life is that on which we are working in each moment. We cannot even study Buddha’s words.”-“So we should be concentrated with our full mind and body on what we do; and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our feelings. Even when you do not feel so well, it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. So you may say, “Oh, I am sorry, I do not feel well.
— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
Earth, mountains, rivers, hidden in this nothingness.In this nothingness, earth, mountains, rivers revealed.Spring flowers, winter snows.There's no being or non-being, nor denial itself.
— Saisho Hiroshi
The point of the spiritual life is to realize Truth. But you will never understand the spiritual life, or realize Truth, if you measure it by your own yardstick.
— Dainin Katagiri
14. Muddy Road Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.  Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unble to cross the intersection.  "Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carriedher over the mud. Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?" "I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?
— Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
Do not seek for the truth, only stop having an opinion.
— SENG-TS'AN
tahiya hote pavan nahin pani, tahiya srishti kown utpati;tahiya hote kali nahin phula, tahiya hote garbh nahi mula;tahiya hote vidya nahin Veda, tahiya hote shabd nahin swada;tahiya hote pind nahin basu,nahin dhar dharni na pavan akasu;tahiya hote guru nahin chela, gamya agamya na panth duhela.Sakhi: avigati ki gati ka kahown, jake gawn na thawngun bihuna pekhana, ka kahi lijai nawnIn that state there is no air or water, and no creation or creator; There is no bud or flower, and no fetus or semen; There is no education or Vedas, and no word or taste; There is no body or settlement, and no earth, air or space; There is no guru or disciple, and no easy or difficult path.Sakhi: That state is very strange. I cannot explain it. It has no village or resting place. That state is without gunas (qualities). What name can on give it? 
— Kabir, The Bijak of Kabir
A pity it is evening, yetI do love the water of this springseeing how clear it is, how clean;rays of sunset gleam on it,lighting up its ripples, making itone with those who travelthe roads; I turn and facethe moon; sing it a song, thenlisten to the sound of the windamongst the pines.
— Li Bai
You don't think your way back to joy
—  you open to it.
Whatever the world dishes up, we take it on--not on our own terms, but on the world's.
— Steve Hagen
1. A Cup of Tea Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), recieved a university professor who came to inqure about Zen.  Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.  The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"  "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your up?
— Nyogen Senzaki
13. A Buddha In Tokyo in th Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did he eat after eleven o'clock in the morning. The other teacher, Tanzan, a professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, never observed the precepts. When he felt like eating he ate, and when he felt like sleeping in the daytime he slept.  One da Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking wine at the time, not even a drop of which is supposed to touch the tongue of a Buddhist. "Hello, brother," Tanzan greeted him. "Won't you have a drink?" "I never drink!" exclaimed Unsho solemnly.  "One who never drinks is not even human," said Tanzan.  "Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!" exclaimed Unsho in anger. "Then if I am not human, wht am I?" "A Buddha," answered Tanzan.
— Nyogen Senzaki
clouds very high looknot one word helped them get up there
— Ikkyu, Crow with No Mouth
born born everything is always bornthinking about it try not to
— Ikkyu, Crow with No Mouth
The love of nature is religion, and that religion is poetry; these three things are one thing. This is the unspoken creed of haiku poets.
— R.H. Blyth
The importance and unimportance of the self cannot be exaggerated.
— R.H. Blyth
Once Seung Sahn Soen-sa and a student of his attended a talk at a Zen center in California. The Dharma teacher spoke about Bodhidharma. After the talk, someone asked him "What's the difference between Bodhidharma's sitting in Sorim for nine years and your sitting here now?"The Dharma teacher said, "About five thousand miles."The questioner said, "Is that all?"The Dharma teacher said, "Give or take a few miles."Later on, Soen-sa asked his student, "What do you think of these answers?""Not bad, not good. But the dog runs after the bone.""How would you answer?""I'd say, 'Why do you make a difference?' "Soen-sa said, "Not bad. Now you ask me.""What's the difference between Bodhidharma's sitting in Sorim for nine years and your sitting here now?""Don't you know?""I'm listening.""Bodhidharma sat in Sorim for nine years. I am sitting here now."The student smiled.
— Seung Sahn, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn
Nothing divides one so much as thought.
— R.H. Blyth
5. If You Love, Love Openly Twenty monks and one nun, who was named Eshun, were practicing meditation with a certain Zen master. Eshun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her. One of them wrote her a love letter, insisting upon a private meeting.  Eshun did not reply. The following day the master gave a lecture to the group, and when it was over, Eshun arose. Addressing the one who had written her, she said: "If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now.
— Nyogen Senzaki
Canning is a whole world of a thing to do. It requires that you get out of your head. It's a Zen thing. You cannot be wondering about your inadequacies and how they drove Bob off and be making jelly. You'll wind up with big, cylindrical jujubes.
— Debby Bull, Blue Jelly: Love Lost & the Lessons of Canning
I'm a practicing Zen Buddhist and I'm influenced by my readings in that tradition, such as the notion that everyone is born a perfect being and we spend most of our lives with a clouded vision trying to realize our perfection," he says. At critical moments in the book, T.S. registers his inkling of this realization. When he makes his maps, it feels like taking down dictation from the universe.
— Reif Larsen
Gracious is the giver who can host and also be a stranger at the door.
— Benjamin Aubrey Myers
If you are upset or nervous, that is proof you lack something. Do not be sad or gloomy - foster virtue, feel compassion, and you can save even devils.
— Awa Kenzo - Zen Bow, Zen Arrow
True wisdomis not borrowed knowledgeit must be basedon my own experience.That which I learn from othersis memory, not wisdom
— Beopjeong, Meditations of a Zen Master
In our practice we have no particular purpose or goal, nor any special object of worship.
— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
How much does he lack himself who must have many things?
— Sen no Rikyū
Careful! Even moonlit dewdrops, If you’re lured to watch, Are a wall before the Truth. — Sogyo
— Sogyo
Consider the sunlight. You may see it is near, yet if you follow it from world to world you will never catch it in your hands. Then you may describe it as far away and, lo, you will see it just before your eyes. Follow it and, behold, it escapes you; run from it and it follows you close. You can neither possess it nor have done with it. From this example you can understand how it is with the true Nature of all things and, henceforth, there will be no need to grieve or to worry about such things.
— Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind
Hard to restrain, unstable is this mind; it flits wherever it lists. Good it is to control the mind. A controlled mind brings happiness.
— Gautama Buddha
My thatched hut; the whole sky Is its roof The mountains are its hedge, And it has the sea for a garden. I’m inside with nothing at all, Not even a bag, And yet there are visitors who say “It’s hidden behind a bamboo door” — 	Muso Soseki
— Musō Soseki
Zen probably won’t solve a single one of our problems. What it might do is help us relate differently to what we consider problems.
— Barry Graham, Kill Your Self: Life After Ego
When we attach to a problem, we make the problem worse. When we attach to a solution, we make the problem worse.
— Barry Graham, Nothing Extra: Notes On the Zen Life (Zen for Real Life, #3
You worry yourself unnecessarily. Put the thought of hitting right out of your mind!
— Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery
...being able to wait without purpose in the state of highest tension...without continually asking yourself: Shall I be able to manage it? Wait patiently, as see what comes - and how it comes!
— Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery
... the Master's warning that we should not practice anything except self-detaching immersion.
— Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery
Zen is a double-edged sword, killing words and thoughts, yet at the same time, giving them life. Although beyond human intellect and philosophy, Zen is their root and source.
— Masao Abe
My conscious mind must have its roots and origins in the most unfathomable depths of being, yet it feels as if it lived all by itself in this tight little skull.
— Alan W. Watts
Three or four times, I have had the great death but my life is lived in the million tiny moments that make up the one dance
— zen master
The changeless is what knows the change, the changeless is unconditioned
— Adyashanti
Zen opens a man's eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed
—  it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of space in its every palpitation
This is shaping up even worse than you anticipated. Still, you feel a measure of detachment, as if you had suffered everything already and this were just a flashback. You wish that you had paid more attention when a woman you met at Heartbreak told you about Zen meditation. Think of all of this as an illusion. She can't hurt you. Nothing can hurt the samurai wh enters combat fully resolved to die. You have already accepted the inevitability of termination, as they say. Still, you'd rather not have to sit through this.
— Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City
That's just the trouble, you make an effort to think about it. Concentrate entirely on your breathing, as if you had nothing else to do!
— Master (Eugen Herrigel)
[W]hen you practise right meditation, you 'cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
You integrate something by first of all accepting it. To resist any aspect of your past is to keep yourself fragmented, and to keep yourself fragmented is exactly what the built-in mechanisms of the negative beliefs in your unconscious mind are designed to do. To become whole within yourself, you must treat each and every experience that you have and ever will have as simply a stepping stone because there’s always a bigger picture. Something challenging may be happening to you right now, and you may have no conscious recognition or idea of why it’s happening, but let me assure you that you will know why one day. How many times have you said to yourself, “Wow, so that’s why it happened?” The issue isn’t really what’s going on in the present moment or what has happened back in the past, the issue is the way you’re defining or looking it…
— Craig Krishna, The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of your Mind
[A] book is not merely a book, it is the sun as well.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Newton invented a new form of reason. He expanded reason to handle infinitesimal changes and I think what is needed now is a similar expansion of reason to handle technological ugliness. The trouble is that the expansion has to be made at the roots, not at the branches, and that’s what makes it hard to see.
— Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
But until then, and right now, the sun is bright, the air is cool, my head is clear, there’s a whole day ahead of us, we’re almost to the mountains, it’s a good day to be alive. It’s this thinner air that does it. You always feel like this when you start getting into higher altitudes.
— Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
[W]e have endless opportunities to forget the self – in planting a tree for future generations; in creating a poem, a meal, a vessel of clay;
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Results for "What are the maintenance requirements of the human being? Life, Liberty, the pursuit of happiness and food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Keeping us confused and divided against one another about these rights, the multinational power elite teaches us in America that only life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights. In socialist nations they promote the view that only food, clothing, shelter and medical care are rights.
— Kerry Thornley
There's no rule in the end, but only the situation and the inclination of your mind
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
[H]ow can something cease to exist that has no solid existence in the first place?
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
The only way we can be free in each moment is to become what each moment is.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
How can a hard and fast view of a world that is never hard and fast possibly be accurate?
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Truth is not … something to believe or disbelieve. The things we believe are always less than Truth[.]
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
[A] view of the world is nothing more than a set of beliefs, a way to freeze the world in our mind. … [T]his can never match Reality, … because the world isn't frozen.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
We can only be here. We can't leave. We are always here.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
If your idea of good opposes something else, you can be sure that [it] is not absolute or certain.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Belief is at best an educated, informed conjecture about Reality.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Good and bad aren't absolutes. They are beliefs, judgements, ideas based on limited knowledge as well as on the inclinations of our minds.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
And the question of Wester religion,” Flattery said, “is: What lies beyond death? But the question of the Zen master is: What lies beyond waking?
— Frank Herbert, Destination Void
Good times come and go. And bad times do the same.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
[E]ven in getting the wonderful things we long for, we tend to live in want of something more[.]
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
We have all sorts of stories about heaven and hell, about oblivion and nothingness, about 'coming back,' and so on. But they are all stories.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
Belief may serve as a useful stopgap measure in the absence of actual experience, but once you see … [it] becomes unnecessary.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
There's nothing you can find - … nothing you can even imagine – that doesn't originate, develop, or exist in relation to other things.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
We imagine that things come into existence, endure for a while, and then pass out of existence
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
To forget the self is to remember that we don't exist alone, but in relation to other people, to other creatures, to the planet, and to the universe.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
[F]ocus not on ourselves as a force in charge of the manipulation of others, but on how our lives interpenetrate those of others – and … all creatures of a dynamic universe.
— Steve Hagen, Buddhism Plain and Simple
The quality of our lives is determined by the focus of our attention.
— Cheri Huber
For there is never anything but the present, and if one cannot live there, one cannot live anywhere.
— Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen
People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something-always, in a word, seeking. But the wise wake up. They choose reason over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons. All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth desiring.
— Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
The mind is the root from which all things grow if you can understand the mind, everything else is included. It’s like the root of a tree. All a tree’s fruit and flowers, branches and leaves depend on its root. If you nourish its root, a tree multiplies. If you cut its root, it dies. Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort.
— Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
Soldiers falling fastBattle of white and scarletBlossoms on the ground
— David Kudler, Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale
This is not a philosophy of not looking where one is going
—  it is a philosophy of not making where one is going so much more important than where one is that there will be no point in going.
[I]t would seem that to be incapable of sitting and watching with the mind completely at rest is to be incapable of experiencing the world in which we live to the full. For one does not know the world simply in thinking about it and doing about it. One must first experience it more directly, and prolong the experience without jumping to conclusions.
— Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen
It has been said that if you have Zen in your life,you have no fear, no doubt, no unnecessary craving, no extreme emotions. Neither illiberal attitudes nor egotistical actions trouble you. You serve humanity humbly, fulfilling your presence in this world with loving-kindness and observing your passing as a petal falling from a flower. Serene, you enjoy life in blissful tranquility. Such is the spirit of Zen.---Zen flesh, Zen bones.
— Paul, Reps
[I]t is typical of Zen that its style of action has the strongest feeling of commitment, of "follow-through." It enters into everything wholeheartedly and freely without having to keep an eye on itself. It does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
— Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen
I hope that I am making myself understood. The Golden Temple once more appeared before me. Or rather, I should say that the breast was transformed into the Golden Temple.
— Yukio Mishima
It is both dangerous and absurd for our world to be a group of communions mutually excommunicate.
— Alan W. Watts
Zen is nothing to get excited about.
— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
One master defines Zen as the art of feeling the polar star in the southern sky. Truth can be reached only through the comprehension of opposites.
— Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea
There is nowhere to arrive except the present moment.
— Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Sit
Before we were born we had no feeling; we were one with the universe. This is called "mind-only," or "essence of mind," or "big mind," After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling. You attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact we have no fear of death anymore, and we have no actual difficulty in our life.
— Shunryu Suzuki
To think, or not to think...This is the true question.
— Bert McCoy
I am not important. If I take a break, no one dies. And this is A Good Thing.
— Helen Russell, The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country
Mountains like these and travelers in the mountains and events that happen to them here are found not only in Zen literature but in the tales of every major religion. This allegory of a physical mountain for the spiritual one that stands between each soul and its goal is an easy and natural one to make. Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships. Some travel into the mountains accompanied by experienced guides who know the best and least dangerous routes by which they arrive at their destination. Still others, inexperienced and untrusting, attempt to make their own routes. Few of these are successful, but occasionally some, by sheer will and luck and grace, do make it. Once there they become more aware than any of the others that there's no single or fixed number of routes. There are as many routes as there are individual souls.
— Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
We're all in this together and we don't have much time.
— Richard Aitken
The title of this Chautauqua is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," not "Zen and the Art of Mountain Climbing," and there are no motorcycles on the tops of mountains, and in my opinion very little Zen. Zen is the "spirit of the valley," not the mountaintop. The only Zen you fin on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
— Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Sharpen your sword daily , and let it serve your true master: YOU. You and the Master are one
— Vernon Kitabu Turner
Po: Maybe I should just quit and go back to making noodles.Oogway: Quit, don't quit? Noodles, don't noodles? You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present.
— Kung Fu Panda
Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction.
— Alan W. Watts
The mind's best trick is the illusion that it exists.
— Marty Rubin
Don’t read books!Don’t chant poems!When you read books your eyeballs wither awayleaving the bare sockets.When you chant poems your heart leaks out slowlywith each word.People say reading books is enjoyable.People say chanting poems is fun.But if your lips constantly make a soundlike an insect chirping in autumn,you will only turn into a haggard old man.And even if you don’t turn into a haggard old man,it’s annoying for others to have to hear you.It’s so much betterto close your eyes, sit in your study,lower the curtains, sweep the floor,burn incense.It’s beautiful to listen to the wind,listen to the rain,take a walk when you feel energetic,and when you’re tired go to sleep.
— Yang Wanli
During this journey it was as if he again thought over his whole life and reached the same old comforting and hopeless conclusion: that there was no need for him to start anything, that he had to live out his life without doing evil, without anxiety, and without wishing for anything.
— Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace