“To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.”

“The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”

“Hed no longer be a grade-motivated person. Hed be a knowledge-motivated person. He would need no external pushing to learn. His push would come from inside. Hed be a free man. He wouldnt need a lot...”

“In the high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty...”

“What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua...that's the only name I can think of for it...like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are n...”

“There is a perennial classical question that asks which part of the motorcycle, which grain of sand in which pile, is the Buddha. Obviously to ask that question is to look in the wrong direction, f...”

“Youve got to live right, too. Its the way you live that predisposes you to avoid the traps and see the right facts. You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? Its easy. Make yourself perfect...”

“There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather, you should lo...”

“Don't aim for perfection. Aim for 'better than yesterday'.”

“What was happening to them was that every bad time produced a bad feeling that in turn produced several more bad times and several more bad feelings, so that their life together became crowded with...”

“It is quality rather than quantity that matters.”

“Better to work for yourself alone. You do as you like and follow your own ideas, you admire yourself and please yourself: isnt that the main thing? And then the public is so stupid. Besides, who re...”

“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.”