Leaf fallen, flying back to the branch, butterfly.

It's like a great ocean, not preferring whether mosquitoes or titans drink its water - all get their fill.

Become a Buddha? The mind can't do it. The body can't do it. Only what can't become a Buddha becomes a Buddha.

Birth is just like this, death is just like this - composing a verse? What purpose could it have?

There are three classes of people. Those who see; those who see when they are shown; those who do not see.

Here in the stillness of snow falling on snow.

Blow of an axe
pine scent, the winter woods.

Flowers in the summer, fires in the fall.

Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it dosen't tell time.

Luis de León, returning to his university after five years imprisonment by the Inquisition resumed his lectures with the words, "As we were saying yesterday..."

Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding he is an ordinary man.

The mind, the Buddha, living creatures - these are not three different things.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

Life is what happens to us while we're making other plans.

Things should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.

Stop, stop. Do not speak. The ultimate truth is not even to think.

Loquacity and lying are cousins.

In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,' Alice objected. 'When I use a word', Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more or less.'

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

'The master was an old turtle, we used to call him Tortoise.' 'Why did you call him tortoise if he wasn't one?' Alice asked. 'We called him Tortoise because he taught us' said the Mock Turtle.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end; then stop.'

This year, yes, even this year has drawn to its close.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.