You only learn when you give your whole being to something. When you give your whole being to mathematics,you learn; but when you are in a state of contradiction, when you do not want to learn but are forced to learn, then it becomes merely a process of accumulation. To learn is like reading a novel with innumerable characters; it requires your full attention, not contradictory attention.

If you come across fear, stare it in its eyes. Face it and you will notice that fear fades away.

You want to be loved because you do not love; but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you.

It is utterly and irrevocably possible to empty all hurts and therefore to love, to have compassion. To have compassion means to have passion for all things, not just between two people, but for all human beings, for all things of the earth, the animals, the trees - everything the earth contains. When we have such compassion we will not despoil the earth as we are doing now and we will have no wars.

[on the secret to a happy, content life] Do you want to know what my secret is? I don’t mind what happens.

When you once see something as false which you have accepted as true, as natural, as human, then you can never go back to it.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.