The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it - aliens... within I don't know how many years, but in not too long a time, it's going to become basic common sense that you are not some alien being who confronts an external world that is not you, but that almost every intelligent person will have the feeling of being an activity of the entire universe.

Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself.

Buddha's doctrine: Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent...this frustration of the desire to possess is the immediate cause of suffering.

Life and love generate effort but effort will not generate them.

There is a peculiar contradiction in trying to be a member of a republic while believing that the universe is a monarchy.

To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening.

Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness - an act of trust in the unknown.