“There is no need to run outside for better seeing... Rather abide at the center of your being; For the more you leave it the less you learn. Search your heart and see... The way to do is to be.”

“The wise are not learned, the learned are not wise.”

“Your name or your body, what is dearer? Your body or your wealth, what is worthier?”

“In the Golden Age, Rulers were unknown. In the following age Rulers were loved and praised. Next came the age When rulers were feared. Finally the age When rulers are hated.”

“One who believes in himself has no need to convince others.”

“All your restlessness is out of your desire for stillness Just desire restlessly, then, love will fill and still you. All your unhealthiness is out of your desire for health, Just abandon health, then, even poison will heal you.”

“In order to understand the dance one must be still. And in order to truly understand stillness one must dance.”

“Nothing but stillness can remain when hearts are full Of their own sweetness, bodies of their loveliness.”

“To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself.”

“If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!”

“The great man is not convulsible or tormentable; events pass over him without much impression.”

“Surely among a rich man's flowering lawns,Amid the rustle of his planted hills,Life overflows without ambitious pains;And rains down life until the basin spills,And mounts more dizzy high the more it rainsAs though to choose whatever shape it wills.”

“Everything is easy when you are busy. But nothing is easy when you are lazy.”

“I'd just as soon play tennis with the net down.”

“At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.”

“A man should carry nature in his head.”

“My crown is in my heart, not on my head; not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, nor to be seen: my crown is called content, a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.”

“Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.”

“No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage: When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out; And take upon's the mystery of things, As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out, In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon.”

“More matter with less art.”