We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, and the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, are transitory and will soon disappear. When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something last longer than we do.

I cannot tell my story without reaching a long way back.

You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation...and that is called loving. Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is your aversion that hurts, nothing else.

A tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me!... Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

But peace, too, is a living thing and like all life it must wax and wane, accommodate, withstand trials, and undergo changes.

Love is stronger than violence.

Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.