Your saying 'I do not understand you' is praise beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve.
Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; and to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
The truly good is he who is one with all those who are deemed bad.
A fox looked at his shadow at sunrise and said, “I will have a camel for lunch today.” And all morning he went about looking for camels. But at noon he saw his shadow again-and he said, “A mouse will do.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care, nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
Keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life.
The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves. I am one of those who remembers those places regardless of distance or time.
Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.
Where can I find a man governed by reason instead of habits and urges?
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.
Your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
My friend, I am not what I seem. Seeming is but a garment I wear — a care-woven garment that protects me from thy questionings and thee from my negligence. The "I" in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence, and therein it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable.
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man.
Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.
As one's gifts increase, his friends decrease.
And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart: Your seeds shall live in my body, And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.
Love is the gentle smile upon the lips of beauty.
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.
Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
Your confidence in the people, and your doubt about them, are closely related to your self-confidence and your self-doubt.
Some who are too scrupulous to steal your possessions nevertheless see no wrong in tampering with your thoughts.
Wailing and lamentation befit those who stand before the throne of life and depart without leaving in its hands a drop of the sweat of their brows or the blood of their hearts.
It was but yesterday I thought myself a fragment quivering without rhythm in the sphere of life. Now I know that I am the sphere, and all life in rhythmic fragments moves within me.
Only yesterday I was no different than them, yet I was saved. I am explaining to you the way of life of a people who say every sort of wicked thing about me because I sacrificed their friendship to gain my own soul. I left the dark paths of their duplicity and turned my eyes toward the light where there is salvation, truth, and justice. They have exiled me now from their society, yet I am content. Mankind only exiles the one whose large spirit rebels against injustice and tyranny. He who does not prefer exile to servility is not free in the true and necessary sense of freedom.
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
You cannot laugh and be unkind at the same time
Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful. And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy, you may find in them a harness and a chain. Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your body and less of your raiment.
Let there be spaces in your togetherness
I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
I am a poet who composes what life proses, and who proses what life composes.
You are good when you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil. For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house. And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.
Happiness is a myth we seek,If manifested surely irks;Like river speeding to the plain,On its arrival slows and murks.For man is happy only inHis aspiration to the heights;When he attains his goal, he coolsAnd longs for other distant flights.
Truth is like the stars; it does not appear except from behind obscurity of the night. Truth is like all beautiful things in the world; it does not disclose its desirability except to those who first feel the influence of falsehood. Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.
A look which reveals inward stress adds more beauty to the face, no matter how much tragedy and pain it bespeaks; but the face which, in silence, does not announce hidden mysteries is not beautiful, regardless of the symmetry of its features.
All you have shall some day be given. Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors.
How narrow is the vision that exalts the busyness of the ant above the singing of the grasshopper.
Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called you tender names.
Where are you now, my beloved? Do you hear my weeping From beyond the ocean? Do you understand my need? Do you know the greatness of my patience?
Your reason and your passion are your rudder and sails of your seafaring soul, if either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
In every winter's heart there is a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night there is a shining dawn.
And what word is knowledge but a shadow of wordless knowledge?
Let passion fill your sails, but let reason be your rudder.
Let there be spaces in your togetherness...just as strings of a lute dance alone though they quiver with the same music.
Conscience is a just but weak judge. Weakness leaves it powerless to execute its judgment.
Each day look into your conscience and amend your faults; if you fail in this duty you will be untrue to the Knowledge and Reason that are within you. Keep a watchful eye over yourself as if you were your own enemy; for you cannot learn to govern yourself, unless you first learn to govern your own passions and obey the dictates of your conscience.
He who does not seek advice is a fool. His folly blinds him to Truth and makes him evil, stubborn, and a danger to his fellow man.
A thief is a man in need. A liar is a man in fear.
In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of people's wrath.
The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely.
joy and sorrow are inseparable. . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Which of you would be silent - when all else sings together in unison?
Hell is not in torture; Hell is in an empty heart.
The earth is like a beautiful bride who needs no manmade jewels to heighten her loveliness.
In the autumn I gathered all my sorrows and buried them in my garden. And when April returned and spring came to wed the earth, there grew in my garden beautiful flowers unlike all other flowers. And my neighbors came to behold them, and they all said to me, "When autumn comes again, at seeding time, will you not give us of the seeds of these flowers that we may have them in our gardens?"
Only once have I been made mute. It was when a man asked me, 'Who are you?'
