“How can a man's life keep its course if will not let it flow?”

— Lao Tzu 老子 1 via Witter Bynner
(Lǎozǐ)
from Way of Life According to Lao Tzu

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“Be silent or let thy words be worth more than silence.”

— Pythagorus 570 – 495 BCE
(of Samos)
"The most influential philosopher of all time"
from Golden Verses of Pythagoras Χρύσεα

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“The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears.”

— Epicurus ɛpɪˈkjɔːrəs 341 – 270 BCE
Western Buddha
from On Nature

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“The gods are not to be feared; death cannot be felt; the good can be won; all that we dread can be conquered.”

— Epicurus ɛpɪˈkjɔːrəs 341 – 270 BCE
Western Buddha
from On Nature

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“To live well is to live concealed.”

— Ovid oʊvɪd 43 BCE – 18 CE
(Publius Ovidius Naso)
Great poet and major influence on the Renaissance, Humanism, and world literature

from The Tristia

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“Although we live today, we can understand the distant past. We can understand without going outside. If we don’t understand, going farther only leads us farther astray.”

— Wang Bi 王弼 226 – 534 CE

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“By means of tranquility, the murky becomes clear. By means of movement, the still becomes alive. This is the natural Way.”

— Wang Bi 王弼 226 – 534 CE

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“Consciousness dissolves itself in vision.”

— Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓 1 via Richard Wilhelm
(Lü Tung-Pin)

from Secret of the Golden Flower 太乙金華宗旨; Tàiyǐ Jīnhuá Zōngzhǐ

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“If you separate compassion and wisdom, you will only be running away from life.”

— Kanhapa ནག་པོ་པ། 1 via Shan Dao
("The Dark-Skinned One")
Mahasiddha #17

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“Although the ancient masters lived in the world, no one thought they were special.”

— Cao Daochong 道寵 1
(​Daochong or Ts’ao Tao-Ch’ung)

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“We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.”

— Montaigne 1533 – 1592 CE
Grandfather of the Enlightenment

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“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

— William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616 CE
from Romeo and Juliet

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“Never let the extent of your wisdom and skill be known... guesses and doubts arouse more respect than accurate knowledge.”

— Balthasar Gracian 1601 – 1658 CE via Shan Dao, #94
from Art of Worldly Wisdom

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“He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.”

— Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet 1694 – 1778 CE

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“Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows like harmony in music; there is a dark inscrutable workmanship that reconciles discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society.”

— William Wordsworth 1770 – 1850 CE

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“No matter what arises, do not fixate on it! This is the ultimate and essential practice.”

— Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol ཞབས་དཀར་ཚོགས་དྲུག་རང་གྲོལ། 1781 – 1851 CE via Erik Pema Kunsang
from Flight of the Garuda

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“If I maintain my silence about my secret it is my prisoner...if I let it slip from my tongue, I am its prisoner.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer 1788 – 1860 CE

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“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

— Abraham Lincoln 1809 – 1865 CE

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“You are chained, entangled in the barbed wire of hope and fear. So give it up!”

— Jamgon Kongtrul the Great འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས། 1813 – 1899 CE via Judith Hanson
(Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé)
from Torch of Certainty

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“Buddhists maintain that there is no Creator but an infinitude of creative powers, which collectively form the one eternal substance, the essence of which is inscrutable hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher.”

— Blavatsky, Helena Еле́на Петро́вна Блава́тская 1831 – 1891 CE
Co-founder of Theosophy
from Isis Unveiled​​

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“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 – 1894 CE

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“Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle.”

— G. K. Chesterton 1874 – 1936 CE

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“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

— A.A. Milne 1882 – 1956 CE
(Alan Alexander Milne)
from Winnie the Pooh

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“We rejoice that the whole of the visible and invisible world is a deep inscrutable mystery—incomprehensible, beyond the intelligence, beyond desire, beyond certitude.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis 1883 – 1957 CE via P. A. Bien
from Report to Greco

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“Uncarved wood… metaphysically means the One, simple and undifferentiated… simplicity, plainness, genuineness in spirit and heart”

— Wing-tsit Chan 陳榮捷 1901 – 1994 CE
from Way of Lao Tzu

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“It is best to erase all personal history… How can I know who I am, when I am all this?”

— Carlos Castaneda 1925 – 1998 CE
from Journey to Ixtlan

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“In the first stanza, we see the followers of the Way… as remote and inaccessible but the second stanza brings them close and alive”

— Ursula Le Guin 1929 – 2018 CE

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“The infinite possibility, the unlimited and unqualified wholeness of being of the uncommitted, the nonacting, the uncarved: the being who, being nothing but himself, is everything.”

— Ursula Le Guin 1929 – 2018 CE
from The Lathe of Heaven

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“Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something… We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.”

— Pema Chödrön 1936 CE –
(Deirdre Blomfield-Brown)
First American Vajrayana nun

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“inscrutability is based on fearlessness. This is unlike the conventional concept of inscrutability, which is deviousness or a blank wall… From this fearlessness, you develop gentleness and sympathy, which allow you to be noncommittal, but with a sense of humor.”

— Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE
from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

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“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”

— Aung San Suu Kyi အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည် 1945 CE –

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“like salad to a tiger… no longer falling prey to small praises and criticisms.”

— Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche རྫོང་གསར་ འཇམ་དབྱངས་ མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ རིན་པོ་ཆེ། 1961 CE –
(Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche)
"Activity" incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
from What Makes You Not a Buddhist

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