Governments can be useful to the governed only so long as inherent tendencies toward tyranny are restrained.

Life is a mask through which the universe expresses itself.

A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.

War is behavior with roots in the single cell of the primeval seas. Eat whatever you touch or it will eat you.

When a wise man does not understand, he says: "I do not understand." The fool and the uncultured are ashamed of their ignorance. They remain silent when a question could bring them wisdom.

Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.

Ecology is often confused with environmentalism, while in fact, environmentalism often leaves out the fact that people, too, can be a legitimate part of an ecosystem.