As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.

If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child; they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future.

A lost coin is found by means of a candle; the deepest truth is found by means of a simple story.

the tragedy of an attachment is that if its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained, it does not cause happiness – it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness, and it is always accompanied, of course, by the anxiety that you may lose the object of your attachment.

Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth.

The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils." Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.

Happiness is not something you acquire; love is not something you produce; love is not something you have; love is something that has you.