When you believe that the truth is living, moving, that it does not have one home or rest in any temple, mosque, or church... in short, that nothing can lead you to it-- you will see also that you are this living thing in every respect.

If you want to see, see at once. When you begin to think, you miss the point.

There is a precise instant when the world is marvelous: now.

Change is inevitable - except from vending machines.

If you can bring your actions and the time you spend in your life more in harmony with your values, you will feel more in control of your life and more satisfied with the decisions you make.

The only way to live happily with others is to overlook their faults and admire their virtues.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states.

Can you be a closet claustrophobic?

I'm gonna make the rest of my life the best of my life.

A bad habit never disappears miraculously-- It's an undo-it yourself project.

Leap and the net will appear.

While all couples eventually lose a bit of that Honeymoon euphoria, those who remain married don't consider this a crushing blow, but rather a natural transition from romantic relationship to working partnership.

Sarcasm is dirty fighting.

Whereas pain is A physical experience Suffering is a mental one. It is the sense that Things should be Other than they are. Its antidote is Acceptance.

Man will survive as a species for one reason: He can adapt to the destructive effects of our power-intoxicated technology and of our ungoverned population growth, to the dirt, pollution and noise of a New York or Tokyo. And that is the tragedy. It is not man the ecological crisis threatens to destroy but the quality of human life.

Great works are done when one is not calculating and thinking.

There's only one thing worse than training employees and losing them and that's not training them and keeping them.

At the end of the game the king and the pawn go into the same bag.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always prevails.

I don't have a lot of respect for talent. Talent is genetic. It's what you do with it that counts.

I love thee, I love but thee with a love that shall not die, Till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old.

We meet naturally on the basis of our sameness and grow on the basis of our differentness.

If you look carefully at life, you see blur. Shake your hand, blur is a part of life.

Praise a fair day at night.

Human pain does not let go of its grip at one point in time. Rather it works its way out of our consciousness over time. There is a season of sadness, a season of anger, a season of tranquility, and a season of hope.

He reacts slowly to all kinds of stimuli, with that slowness which long caution and deliberate pride have bred in him: he examines the stimulus that approaches him, he is far from meeting it halfway. He believes neither in misfortune nor in guilt: he comes to terms with himself, with others; he knows how to forget--he is strong enough; hence everything must turn out for his best.

People make mistakes but mistakes make people.

It's nice to have a spoon in time for dinner.

The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much.

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.

Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he'll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years.

I love that after a good date or a good meeting I can walk down the street screaming with joy if I want, and no one cares. No one calls the police or grabs their kids. If anything, they smile. You see, New York is filled with crazy people, so to everyone walking by me' I'm just one more crazy. It's a very freeing feeling.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it with serenity and too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

That’s why there shouldn’t be any captions. People should just look. We should awaken our sensitivity. But people don’t. If it’s in a decanter, they won’t dare say it’s a good wine or it’s a bad wine because they haven’t seen the year. They don’t know which chateau. That’s what I resent. I think photographs should have no caption, just location and date. Date is important because things change.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.

If you want your spouse to listen and pay strict attention to every word you say, talk in your sleep.

Love creates an us without destroying a me.

Of all the passions, fear weakens judgment most.

If you've got nothing, go to New York City. That way, if you leave with nothing, nobody asks why, and if you leave with something, you're one lucky son of a bitch.

The whole mechanism of modern life is geared for a flight from God and from the spirit into the wilderness of neurosis.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

Most of us feel that others will not tolerate emotional honesty in communication. We would rather defend our dishonesty on the grounds that it might hurt others; and having rationalized our phoniness into mobility, we settle for superficial relationships.

When one is enthralled with The beauty on the surface of the ocean, The immensity of its depths can Never be discerned.

Children need models more than they need critics.

People quit people, not companies.

To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul

No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everyone sitting on the couch.

One who every morning plans the priorities of the day and follows out that plan carries a thread that will guide one through the most busy life. But, where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of in-cidents, chaos soon reigns.

The closer you stand to the lighthouse, the darker it gets.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

The best of hunters lies more than he hunts.

Those that bite the hand that feeds them, generally lick the boots that kick them.

Nothing succeeds like failure. Failure is a natural Call for attention, Like pain. To pay attention is to Step out of your trance.

I thought New York had it coming, that it needed a kick in the balls. When I returned to New York, I wanted to get even. Now I had a weapon, photography,

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore...

Love and a cough cannot be hidden.

Wide experience makes for deep tolerance.

The top eight hits on the hurt parade: disappointment, rejection, abandonment, ridicule, humiliation, betrayal, deception, and abuse.

It's when we step back from a single brushstroke, that we can see the whole painting.

What is a value system? First of all, it is yours, and it is unique because you are one-of-a-kind. It is your code of ethics by which to live. It is your behavior-bible. It is what guides your life.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough.

You cannot distinguish between a drunken man and a mad man until they have slept.

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.

Best to be off wi' the auld love before we be on wi' the new.

Love is not finding someone you can live with; it's finding someone you can't live without.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so indispensable, none so powerful, as hope. Without hope people are only half alive. With hope they dream and think and work.

It is far better to be alone than to wish you were.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.

He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero

I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.

It is better to conceal one's knowledge than to reveal one's ignorance.

People say that the city is a microcosm of the country, but in many ways it is friendlier (yep, that's what I said) than a lot of the country. Different peoples get along better in New York than they do most anywhere else because of a kind of shared civilized wildness born of compression.

A candle lights others and consumes itself.

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

In a real sense, through our own self-talk, we are either in the construction business or the wrecking business.

It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.

For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth. Imagine, then, that a man should need to get fire from a neighbour, and, upon finding a big bright fire there, should stay there continually warming himself; just so it is if a man comes to another to share the benefit of a discourse, and does not think it necessary to kindle from it some illumination for himself and some thinking of his own, but, delighting in the discourse, sits enchanted; he gets, as it were, a bright and ruddy glow in the form of opinion imparted to him by what is said, but the mouldiness and darkness of his inner mind he has not dissipated nor banished by the warm glow of philosophy.

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve.

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.

Relationships teach you about yourself. In them, issues from childhood may resurface. Or, issues that you had in previous relationships may come up. Until you process and change what doesn't work, issues will continue to come back. You cannot escape things that need to be healed by finding new relationships. New people cannot heal old wounds that you haven't addressed.

The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.

Less advice and more hands.

Stress is like spice--in the right proportion it enhances the flavor of a dish. Too little produces a bland, dull meal; too much may choke you. The trick is to find the right amount for you.

No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen.

Life is short. We don't have much time to gladden the hearts of those who walk this way with us. So, be swift to love and make haste to be kind.

Resentment is like taking poison in hopes your enemy will die.

The people that you choose to let influence you will determine your life path, and the excuses that you succumb to will only serve to dilute the truth and hinder your growth as a person.

The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.

I have and I know the mercy shown to me by angels.

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Fate loves the fearless.

'If to enjoy even an enjoyable present we must have the assurance of a happy future, we are 'crying for the moon.' We have no such assurance. The best predictions are still matters of probability rather than certainty, and to the best of our knowledge every one of us is going to suffer and die. If, then, we cannot live happily without an assured future, we are certainly not adapted to living in a finite world where, despite the best plans, accidents will happen, and where death comes at the end.

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Taking in the good, whenever and wherever we find it, gives us new eyes for seeing and living.

It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.

Things have the value that we ourselves have the capacity to give them.

Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now.

Always speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.

No proverb is untrue.

Never answer an angry word with an angry word. It is the second one that makes the quarrel.

One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.

The greatest lesson I ever learned was to accept complete responsibility for what I was feeling.

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

In a community, your reputation matters. in a strange place, your clothing counts.

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

The bird that cries korokoro in the mountain rice-field I know to be a hototogisu-- yet it may have been my father; it may have been my mother.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.

I see children painting beautifully well, and at puberty sometimes there’s a curtain that drops, and then it takes a lifetime to get it back. Not the purity of a child, because you never get it back once there is knowledge, but to get back the qualities of a young child takes a whole lifetime.

All things are difficult before they are easy.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

Where there is great love, there are always miracles.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

“When you hold the hand of a child, invest one hundred percent of yourself in the act of holding her hand. When you hug your partner, do the same. Forget everything else. Be totally present, totally alive in the act of hugging. This is the opposite of the way we’ve been trained to lead our lives and run our businesses. We’ve been taught to do many things at once. We answer an e-mail while we talk on the phone; while in a meeting for one project, we work on our notes for another project. Every new technology promises to help us do more things at once. Now we can send e-mail while listening to music, talking on the phone, and taking a picture, all with the same device. With your energy that dispersed, where is your power?”

We tend to forget that happiness does not come as a result of getting something we don't have; but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

I have to live with myself, and so I want to be fit for myself to know, I want to be able, as days go by, always to look myself straight in the eye; I don't want to stand, with the setting sun, and hate myself for things I have done. I don't want to keep on a closet shelf a lot of secrets about myself, and fool myself, as I come and go, into thinking that nobody else will know the kind of man I really am; I don't want to dress myself in shame. I want to go out with my head erect, I want to deserve all men's respect; but here in the struggle for fame and self I want to be able to like myself. I don't want to look at myself and know that I'm bluster and bluff and empty show. I can never hide myself from me; I see what others may never see; I know what others may never know, I can never fool myself, and so whatever happens, I want to be self-respecting and conscience free.

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity.

The mountains, rivers, earth, grasses, trees, and forests are always emanating a subtle, precious light, day and night, always emanating a subtle, precious sound, demonstrating and expounding to all people the unsurpassed ultimate truth.

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

Even in Kyôto— hearing the cuckoo's cry— I long for Kyôto

Photography as I conceive it, well, it’s a drawing — immediate sketch done with intuition and you can’t correct it. If you have to correct it, it’s the next picture. But life is very fluid. Well, sometimes the pictures disappear and there’s nothing you can do. You can’t tell the person, Oh, please smile again. Do that gesture again. Life is once, forever.

A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.

To keep the body in good health is a duty: otherwise the mind is not strong and clear.

Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

Empty not your soul to everybody and do not diminish thereby your importance.

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.

The only true success is living your life in your own way.

Life is like a bagel. It's delicious when it's fresh and warm, but often it's just hard. The hole in the middle is its great mystery, and yet it wouldn't be a bagel without it.

The only way to do great work is to love the work you do.

For Zen students, every weed is a treasure.

Never let your education interfere with your intelligence.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

Like water, this rising tide of data can be viewed as an abundant, vital and necessary resource. With enough preparation, we should be able to tap into that reservoir -- and ride the wave -- by utilizing new ways to channel raw data into meaningful information. That information, in turn, can then become the knowledge that leads to wisdom.

It's important for people to know what you stand for. It's equally important that they know what you won't stand for.

Perhaps the capabilities, interests, passions, and even genius in the sense of talents of rare quality that people possess are not latent, but rather emergent. These human contributions to technology, science, art, medicine, industry, community, and care come into existence when people have an opportunity to encounter new pursuits, new situations, and new experiences. A genius for computing, for example, comes into being through the encounter of a particular person with a particular situation, with it appearing fundamentally unknowable which combination of person and situation will lead to such excellence. For me, the import of this lesson is for the deep importance of diversity and true inclusion. The potentials for excellence lie everywhere. It is only by opening and increasing the chances for combining many different people with many different experiences that the potentialities for contribution, success, and happiness can become actualities, and human talent made real.

The lap of its owner is security enough for a cat.

What would please me most is to make photographs as incomprehensible as life.

Only a fraction of the camera's possibilities interests me—the marvelous mixture of emotion and geometry, together in a single instant.

Don't be like the shadow: a constant companion, yet not a comrade.

Morals and ethics are not a religion. They are logical, sensible principles of good conduct that we need for a peaceful, productive society.

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

We form habits and then our habits form us.

There is in reality neither truth nor error, neither yes nor no, nor any distinction whatsoever, since all--including the contraries--is one.

Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it.

Foolish friends are worse than wise enemies.

In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.

More so than any scenic skyscraper vista or wild night out, it's the sight of New Yorkers quietly helping one another that defines the city for me. I don't know if I'll spend the rest of my life here, or uproot myself all over again in a year or two, but the compassion and community responsibility that New York engenders in so many of its residents can never really be 'over.'

Hills far away are green but they often have sour bottoms.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

The more you eat, the more you want.

Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book.

Five Phrases to Live By: Thank you. I love you. How are you? What do you need? I'm sorry.

Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today.

New York City is one of the greatest places on the planet. You have the best in food, art, theatre, and definitely people-watching.

I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…

The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.

Half the people you know are below average.

It was one of those bright, gladdening spring days in New York that tricks you into thinking that perhaps summer has come. I hadn't been in the city long enough not to fall for the trick (never trust the month of March in New York!), and so allowed myself to feel a burst of joy at the appearance of the sun.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.

Our distrust is very expensive.

The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.

Basically we are all the same human beings with the same potential to be a good human being or a bad human being.

What is to give light must endure burning.

Speak the truth, do not become angered, and give when asked, even be it a little. By these three conditions one goes to the presence of the gods.

Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds.

Great words are bright and open; small words are chit and chat.

To embark on the journey towards your goals and dreams requires bravery. To remain on that path requires courage. The bridge that merges the two is commitment.

The only path away from suffering is to embrace the suffering.

If you sell a drum in your own village, you get the money and keep the sound.

How beautiful to watch the rain and not get wet.

Not all those who wander are lost.

You have the right to get angry, but you do not have the right or the license to attack another person or their character traits.

Never mind the past. Have the unflinching determination to move on your path unhampered by limiting thoughts of past errors.

New York is unique as a great metropolis in that, while it unquestionably has its own characteristic life, this life does not focus the life of the rest of the country, as London is the distillation of all English character and custom. But I had a sense this leg of my journey of returning from America and entering an international settlement.

The golden rule of conduct, therefore, is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never think alike and we shall see the Truth in fragments and from different angles of visions.

Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.

Things usually turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.

Happiness is easy. It is the letting go of unhappiness that is hard. We are willing to give up everything but our misery.

A full bottle makes no sound; a half-bottle sloshes around.

Anyone can become angry-- that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way-- that is not easy.

People who are sensible about love are incapable of it.

You may light another's candle with your own without loss.

A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

You know you've had too much coffee when your eyes stay open when you sneeze.

If you have nothing to do, go home early.

One can smile and smile and still be a villain.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

Youth is intoxication without wine; old age, wine without intoxication.

Don't wish it were easier. Wish you were better.

If enlightenment is not where you are standing, where will you look?

Better alone unattached than unsuitably matched.

Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep.

Love is what you’ve been through with somebody.

The time to relax is when you don't have the time for it.

Wealth, if you use it, comes to an end; learning, if you use it, increases.

It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating.

To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.

Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be?

The crucial job of artists is to find a way to release materials into the animated middle ground between subjects, and so to initiate the difficult but joyful process of human connection. This is not only the relation of a given self to a given other, but to show how that relation might move further to a consciousness of persons and publics beyond our familiar horizons.

Long ago I made up my mind to let other people have their own peculiarities.

When asked what camera he used: 'You don't ask a painter what paints and brushes he uses. You don't ask a writer what typewriter he uses-- anyway, I regard the camera as an aid.'

Just as we have recognized unity, by our very nature so we must also recognize variation.

Love is possible. Anything is possible. This is New York.

The threshold to all that is extraordinary in life opens only when we devote ourselves to giving attention, not getting it.

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

Life has a way of overgrowing its achievements as well as its ruins.

Whoever gossips to you will gossip of you.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

But as for me, I enjoy shooting a picture. Being present. It’s a way of saying, Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s like the last three words of Joyce’s Ulysses, which is one of the most tremendous works which have ever been written. It’s Yes, yes, yes. And photography is like that. It’s yes, yes, yes. And there are no maybes. All the maybes should go to the trash, because it’s an instant, it’s a moment, it’s there! And it’s respect of it and tremendous enjoyment to say, Yes! Even if it’s something you hate. Yes! It’s an affirmation.

I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't.

A happy home is one in which each spouse grants the possibility that the other may be right, though neither believes it.

Looking for an adventure? There is always one to be found. New York City has that rare ability to simultaneously make you feel embraced and challenged, all at once, every single day. As long as I live here, I will never be bored.

Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves?

The less you talk, the more you're listened to.

You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.

The no-mind state is not the vacancy of idiocy but the most supremely alert intelligence, undistracted by extraneous thought.

The greatest crime is The overlooking of Who you really are In favor of The story of Who you think you are. This preoccupation with Your personal drama is The cloud that masks The sun.

We are greater than, and greater for, the sum of us.

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.

Come, let’s go snow-viewing till we’re buried.

I never have taken a picture I’ve intended. They’re always better or worse.

To search for happiness Implies its absence. This implication is a fundamental flaw. Happiness is ever present. It may become obscured, Such obscuration being temporary.

Awe is the best of man.

Thave always loved the amateur side of photography, automatic photographs, accidental photographs with uncentered compositions, heads cut off, whatever. l incite people to make their self-portraits. I see myself as their walking photo booth.

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly to keep the channel open. You do not have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever, at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive then the others.

Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand and point the way.

Look at light and admire its beauty. Close your eyes, and then look again: and what you see later is not yet.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

Be a channel god can't help but tune into. Be the person you needed when you were at your lowest. Be the voice the world so desperately needs to hear that dwells deeeeep down inside there. Be your unshakeable knowing. Be the hard truth, not the easy lie. And for anyone that's being triggered by these sentences- I see you. I know you're rolling your eyes at this seemingly"perfect"girl on your feed. Don't let it take away from what I'm saying to you. I know darkness. I know pain and loss and I know what it's like to spiral into those thoughts and compare instead of be inspired. Let's be honest, here. I'm not above you. I am dying just like the rest of you. My skin will wrinkle, but my soul will strengthen. This whole thing is a very short trip, so enjoy it. My New Years resolution is falling in love with death so I can commit to coming to life. I will be present for my life and I dare you to do the same.

Unity in diversity is the order of the universe. Just as we are all human, we are all distinct.

Don't be [too] sweet lest people lick you.

We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.

I do not know of any religion apart from human activity.

We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.

The man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.

“A man who suffers or stresses before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary”

In the presence of some people we inevitably depart from ourselves: we are inaccurate, we say things we do not feel, and talk nonsense. When we get home we are conscious that we have made fools of ourselves. Never go near these people.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Brandy or beer? Water's a good idea!

The love of money is the root of all evil.

Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life. Redeem your mind from the hockshops of authority. Accept the fact that you are not omniscient, but playing a zombie will not give you omniscience — that your mind is fallible, but becoming mindless will not make you infallible — that an error made on your own is safer than ten truths accepted on faith, because the first leaves you the means to correct it, but the second destroys your capacity to distinguish truth from error. In place of your dream of an omniscient automaton, accept the fact that any knowledge man acquires is acquired by his own will and effort, and that that is his distinction in the universe, that is his nature, his morality, his glory.

Never argue with a stupid person. first they'll drag you down to their level, then they'll beat you with experience.

It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance.

If the future seems dark to us, is it not perhaps because we are witnessing the dawn of a light that has never before been seen? We live in an age in which charity can become heroic as it has never been before. We live, perhaps, on the threshold of the greatest eucharistic era of the world--the era that may well witness the final union of all mankind.

The man who trusts no others doesn't trust himself.

Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath.

Falling in love is easy - oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin do most of the work for us. But staying in love? That's something we create and decide, and it requires our minds, hearts, guts and souls. So when someone says or acts like they're not ready, it's better that you respect that rather than try to push them - because if you do, it won't work. You can't do the work alone. And, you can't blame them when you're not really doing the work either. Staying in love means that we show up AS the "right person" and not just expect rightness from another. It means collaboration, negotiation, resisting the comfort zone, togetherness as well as distance. Staying in love demands our empathy and it demands we be responsible for our happiness. Staying in love demands we frequently apologize and accept apologies. It means we communicate our boundaries and let down our walls. It demands that we tame our wild minds from creating stories and meanings that create villains and victims. Staying in love means we address bravely the issues that cause any misalignments in emotional and sensual intimacy. Staying in love means that we fight and make-up, fight for each other and fight for harmony and peace. Anyone can fall in love but staying in love is another skill set.

Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see.

The opportunity of a lifetime is seldom so labeled.

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

She could not descend to an existence where her brain would explode under the pressure of forcing itself not to outdistance incompetence. She could not function to the rule of: Pipe down—keep down—slow down—don’t do your best, it is not wanted!

Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting or lying down, everything you do is Zen.

Anything can happen to me tomorrow, but at least nothing more can happen to me yesterday.

Happiness is a man's greatest achievement: it is the response of his total personality to a productive orientation toward himself and the world outside.

Learn weeping and thou shalt gain laughing.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.

Mosquito: an insect that makes you like flies better.

May the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends gathered below never fall out.

Too often we under-estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

When it comes to love, the best you can hope for (and it is far better than whatever you may imagine, based on movies and whatnot) is not someone for whom you feel love all the time--or passion or admiration--but someone who will take your hand and step with you into the insane flood of need and desire and emotion and connection, and eyes wide open, watch it all and feel it fully. Together.

I believe that courage is all too often mistakenly seen as the absence of fear. If you descend by rope from a cliff and are not fearful to some degree, you are either crazy or unaware. Courage is seeing your fear in a realistic perspective, defining it, considering the alternatives and choosing to function in spite of risk.

Till age six, your son is your master; until ten he's your servant; until sixteen, a wonderful adviser; from then on, he's either your friend or your enemy.

If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.

We are always the same age inside.

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

What is the most important thing to learn in chemistry? never lick the spoon.

Love and prudence are absolutely incompatible.

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion, but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting and significant than any romance, however passionate.

I'm not weird, I'm a limited edition.

The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.

Almost everything comes from almost nothing.

It is a fault to cling to a fault.

Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.

O Love give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

I loathe New York, Bertie. I wouldn't come near the place if I hadn't got to see editors occasionally. There's a blight on it. It's got moral delirium tremens. It's the limit.

Love is what's left in a relationship when all the selfishness has been removed.

Good eating deserveth good drinking.

A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.

Keeping in good physical shape is an important antidote to stress overload, but it's not the cure.

The beginning and end of one's life is to draw closer to the fire.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time.

Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error.

To take photographs is to hold one's breath when all faculties converge in the face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a physical and intellectual joy.

Truth — or, more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality — is the essential foundation for any good outcome.

New York has no home. It sits in restaurants and barrooms day and night. It is a city of noisome tenements and narrow flats so small that people file themselves away therein like papers in a pigeonhole.

Warning: dates in calendar are closer than they appear.

They say things happen for a reason, I say there's a reason things happen.

I often marvel that while each man loves himself more than anyone else, he sets less value on his own estimate than on the opinions of others.

Though I speak with the tongue of angels, if I have not love, I am become as hollow brass. Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all myteries, and all knowledge... And though I have enough faith to move the mightiest mountains, if I have not love, I am nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. It bears all things. It hopes all things. Love never fails. For prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, knowledge shall wither away. And now shall abide... faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these three is love.

Do not seek perfection in a changing world.

If you think you can do something, or you think you cannot, you are usually right.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Law is costly; shake hands and be friends.

A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen... and this kitchen is delirious.

Tradition must be a springboard to the future, not an easy chair for resting.

When you deny what is real, when you hide from life's pains, when you shut out the world, only fantasy remains.

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.

Therefore, putting away lying, each one speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another … do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil … And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.

Relationships need warmth. They need sweetness, ease and laughter. Not every minute of every day. But yes, most days. This is what separates hard relationships from great relationships.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart.

Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will.

Love is more than a feeling; it's a journey that you take with another person and both of you are active participants in how that journey unfolds.

Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like there's no one watching.

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.

Only some of us can learn by other people's mistakes. the rest of us have to be the other people.

Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn't go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick.

I should love to satisfy all, if I possibly can; but in trying to satisfy all, I may be able to satisfy none … the best course is to satisfy one’s own conscience and leave the world to form its own judgment, favorable or otherwise.

The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.

Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something, without feeling the necessity to prove someone else is wrong.

I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing it to the end.

New York is of all faiths -- and of none. It is a Northern city, a Western city, a Southern city, a foreign city. It is a city of the extremes of selfishness and of philanthropy.

I expect to pass through this life but once; therefore if there be any kindness I can show or any good thing that I can do for any fellow being, let me do it now, not defer, or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

There are days when it takes all you've got just to keep up with the losers.

Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Aim high in your career but stay humble in your heart.

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf.

Fools give parties, sensible people go to them.

In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.

Guilt is feeling bad for what you have done or not done, while shame is feeling bad for who you are, measured against some standard of perfection or acceptability.

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.

If you have an enemy, do not requite him evil with good, for that would put him to shame. Rather prove that he did you some good. And rather be angry than put to shame...

Every great, successful person I know shares the capacity to remain centered, clear and powerful in the midst of emotional storms.

Ridding oneself of ignorance is Worth more than the acquisition of knowledge. With memory gone The past is gone Relinquishing hopes and fears The future is gone. The present is upon you. In every moment. You are free.

You don't marry one person, you marry three: the person you think they are, the person they are, and the person they are going to become as a result of being married to you.

Marry your best friend as well as your lover. Don't keep secrets or harbor grudges.

Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows.

Who ha' fingernail no ha' itch, and who ha' itch no ha' fingernail.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened

Character is what you are in the dark.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

I am free of all prejudices. I hate every one equally.

Hard work spotlights the character of people; some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all!

If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me, I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.

The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.

No matter what you are doing, keep the undercurrent of happiness. Learn to be secretly happy within your heart in spite of all circumstances.

The fear of disapproval is a strong one, and it takes the courage of principles to act in the face of it.

Man never reasons so much and becomes so introspective as when he suffers since he is anxious to get at the cause of his sufferings.

My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.

It's never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise.

The way one interprets and evaluates reality is the key to one's emotional and mental health.

Relationships seldom die because they suddenly have no life left in them; they wither slowly, either because people do not understand how much or what kind of upkeep, time, work, love, and caring they require or because people are too lazy or afraid to try. A relationship is a living thing. It needs and benefits from the same attention to detail that an artist lavishes on his art.

More than any other major personality trait, optimism is a matter of practice.

We cannot become separate people, responsible people, connected people, reflective people without some losing and leaving and letting go.

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. This I did.

The most important words we'll ever utter are those words we say to ourselves, about ourselves, when we're by ourselves.

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Every time you borrow money, you're robbing your future self.

The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life.

Of all strategies, to know when to quit may be best.

Have patience with all things but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being.

Jealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love may be read. It merely records the degree of insecurity. It is a negative, miserable state of feeling, having its origin in a sense of insecurity and inferiority.

Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.

New York love isn't brotherly. It's obsessive, it's ecstatic, it's an electric current that makes you grab your bags and uproot your life.

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have of trying to change others.

The hearts of fools are in their mouths but the mouths of the wise are in their hearts.

It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

There is no weeping that can compete with the Northwest rains.

Happiness is having a sense of self--not as a feeling of being perfect but being good enough and knowing that you are in the process of growth, of achieving levels of joy. It's a wonderful contentment and acceptance of who and what you are and a knowledge that the world and life are full of wondrous adventures and possibilities.

If you are lost, follow someone that looks like they know where they are going, and you will end up somewhere you probably needed to be anyway.

An artist is conscious of something besides the mere physical, in every object in nature. He feels its expression, he sympathizes with its character, he is impressed with its language; his heart, mind, and soul are stirred in it's contemplation. It is the life, the feeling, the mind, the soul of the subject itself.

I know you believe you understand what you think I said. But I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

You must know who you are, understand your inner nature. You must become conscious of this infinite nature in yourself. Then you will break free of your shackles.

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who did you the injury.

Everybody's eyes is a piece of jewelry beyond compare...

I would rather die of passion than of boredom.

You have to stand against the whole world although you may have to stand alone.

Forget injuries, never forget kindness.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

There's so many people in the world struggling with different things. What I do know is you have the power to overcome anything you want. With just a thought. It's all about how you think and perceive things. Changing your thinking will help you the most.

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.

If you make it in New York, you got it made. If you make it anywhere else, you’ve still got something to prove.

Genius is eternal patience.

Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different?

Maybe the important thing is how people pay attention to each other, no matter what they're talking about or doing.

Never dip your pen in company ink.

Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.

Life's greatest achievement is the continual remaking of yourself so that at last you know how to live.

The way a subject reacts to the camera can create a kind of happening. Why pretend the camera isn't there? Why not use it? Maybe people will reveal themselves as violent or tender, crazed or beautiful. But in some way, they reveal who they are. They'lI have taken a self-portrait.

It has recently been discovered that research causes cancer in rats.

Either you have a gift or you have none. If you have a gift, well, it’s a responsibility. You have to work.

Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value.

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating. I don’t care if it’s a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us. I think the world would be unlivable without art.

I don't make comparisons. I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse to measure myself as part of anything. I'm an utter egoist.

Anyone can fall in love. Staying in love, however, demands commitment, accountability, intention, patience, communication, creativity, grit, and awareness. Staying in love is a whole other skill set.

Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.

Long seeking it through others, I was far from reaching it. Now I go by myself; I meet it everywhere. It is just I myself, and I am not itself. Understanding this way, I can be as I am.

Creativity is the ability to unite pre-existing elements into new combinations

A clear understanding of the significance of our misdeeds is emotionally healthier than hopeless misery afterward.

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways-- either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.

When you are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in your life. Just as when you are drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life.

Have you even been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life… You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like maybe we should just be friends or how very perceptive turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.

If you don’t have enough to eat, work on getting enough to eat. If you can’t keep warm in winter, work on getting sufficient clothing. If you don’t have time to enjoy yourself, work toward getting leisure time. But when you have enough, you should stop.

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

Self-esteem = self-efficacy + self respect

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

If you have no time to take care of your sickness, you get time to die.

An old woman is not old in a song she dances well.

Business and folding screens must be crooked to stand.