what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.

despite his evident love of children, Hans Christian Andersen never married • late in life his health declined rapidly; first he developed chronic bronchitis, then the more serious, and ultimately fatal, liver cancer • unable to care for himself, he moved into the house of some friends near Copenhagen, where he could see the oceon from his room • one morning he quietly finished his tea, and was found a few minutes later in his bed, dead • in his hands was a farewell letter written forty-five years earlier by the only woman he had ever loved.

charlotte joko beck

life always gives exactly the teacher we need at every moment • this includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath.

the imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself.

do everything right all the time and the child will prosper • it is as simple as that, except for: fate, luck, heredity, chance, the astrological sign he was born under, his order of birth, his first encounter with evil, the girl who jilts him in spite of his excellent qualities, the war being fought when he is a young man, the drugs he may try too many times, the friends he makes, how he scores on tests, how well he endures kidding about his shortcomings, how ambitious he becomes, how far he falls behind, circumstantial evidence, danger when it is least expected, difficulty in triumphing over circumstances, people with hidden agendas, and animals with rabies.

a young couple is led to imagine that marriage is a box full of goodies,... that they can sit down and eat out of this box all their lives, and it will never be empty • but it is empty • there will never be anything in it unless the partners put it there • and if they do not want it to be empty, they must put in a lot more than they are in the habit of taking out • but the young romantic who imagined it ought to be endlessly full of goodies institutes a lawsuit against God and the marriage partner as soon as he discovers the score of the game • he feels swindled • but he imagines the next box he buys will be full even though the first one was empty.

no one should drive a hard bargain with an artist

you come to see... that suffering is required; and you no more want to avoid it than you want to avoid putting your next foot on the ground when you are walking. In the spiritual path, joy and suffering follow one another like two feet, and you come to a point of not minding which "foot" is on the ground • you realize, on the contrary, that is extremely uncomfortable hopping all the time on the joy foot.

we must always be on the lookout for perverse dynamic processes which carry even good things to excess • it is precisely these excesses which become the most evil things in the world • the devil, after all, is a fallen angel.

God is never closer than when the space between two hearts narrows.

there is something instinctive about the moment you choose to 'take' a photograph • it's not the result of thought or reflection • the strength of the composition is always born of the instant of the decision • it reminds me of archery • there is the tension of the bow and the free flight of the arrow.

the night has a thousand eyes,
and the day but one;
yet the light of the bright world dies
with the dying sun.

the mind has a thousand eyes,
and the heart but one;
yet the light of a whole life dies,
when love is done.

if we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair • we'd never have a friendship • we'd never go into business, because we'd be too cynical • well, that's nonsense • you've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

you save your strength for your positive vision • you save your courage for the conditions in america that need to be improved, whether it is child poverty or a lack of insurance for people • you save your ingenuity for figuring out ways to convince americans that this is the direction we should go • you don't waste all that on simply making a negative attack against your opponent.

art is a wound turned into light

i'm not responsible for my photographs • photography is not documentary, but intuition, a poetic experience • it's drowning yourself, dissolving yourself and then, sniff, sniff, sniff -- being sensitive to coincidence • you can't go looking for it; you can't want it, or you won't get it • first you must lose your self • then it happens.

in whatever picture-story we try to do, we are bound to arrive as intruders • it is essential to approach the subject on tiptoe - even if the subject is still-life.

a photograph is neither taken nor seized by force • it offers itself up • it is the photo that takes you • one must not take photos.

find a job you like and you add five days to every week.

live in joy, in love,
even among those who hate.

live in joy, in health,
even among the afflicted.

live in joy, in peace,
even among the troubled.

live within • be still.
free from fear and attachment,
know the sweet joy of the way.

he who has rejected the world's bait is called "one at peace."

your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

i have often been asked what i thought was the secret of buddha's smile • it is - it can only be - that he smiles at himself for searching all those years for what he already possessed.

between you and it there is mutual giving; you say Thou to it and give yourself to it, it says Thou to you and gives itself to you.

...if you were to define love, the only word big enough to engulf it all would be "life." love is life in all of its aspects • and if you miss love, you miss life • please don't.