Sayings by Famous People

“The true nature of mind is beyond any concept or physical form. Therefore it cannot be studied solely by the third-person methods of Western science. Mind must be also studied through a rigorous observation of our own experience, which equally meets the norms of the scientific method. In this, Buddhosm, a 2,500-year science of the mind, excels.”
— The Dali Lama*

“T’ai-Chi Ch’üan is the art of concealing hardness in softness.”
— Yang Cheng-fu**

“If your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
— Abraham Maslow

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
— Henry Ford

“If you think you can or think you can’t, you're right.”
— Henry Ford

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
— Henry Ford

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
— Henry Ford

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”
— Henry Ford

“The mouth gets us into more trouble than any other part of the body—both by what food we put into it and what words we let come out of it.”
—Cheng Man-ch’ing

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.”
—Albert Einsten

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
—Albert Einsten, quoted in an interview by G.S. Viereck, 1929

“You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.”
—Jonathan Swift

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety!”
—Benjamin Franklin

“It is a great error to speak of the things of this world as absolute and indiscriminately deal with them, as it were, by the book. In nearly all things one must make distinctions and exceptions because of differences in their circumstances. These circumstances are not covered by one and the same rule. Nor can these distinctions and exceptions be found written in books. They must be taught by discretion.”
—Francesco Guiccardini, Maxims and Reflections of a Renaissance Statesman, p.42.

Benjamin Franklin’s Epitaph

—Benjamin Franklin’s epitaph, which he liked to write out out by hand and give to friends and acquaintances.

Sayings From Fortune Cookies

“Things in life should be simple rather than complex.”

“No one is ever too old to learn, but many people keep putting it off anyway.”

“Never stop. One tends to stop just before a breakthrough.”

“If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win.”

“In human endeavor, chance favors the prepared mind.”

“From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.”

“Emptiness is the mother of all things.”

“Luck is the by-product of busting your fanny.”

“Genius is eternal patience.”

“A great pleasure in life is doing what others say you can’t.”

“You must let go of something before you can capture it for good.”

“Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.”

“Today’s profits are yesterday’s goods well ripened.”

“The most gratifying goal must begin with a small achievement.”

“It takes great courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”

“Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory.”

“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.”

“A secret is no longer a secret by the time it gets to you.”

“Every excess becomes a vice.”

“When both feet are planted firmly, nothing can shake you.”

“Young men think that old men are fools, but old men know that young men are fools.”

“Security is not in having things; it’s in handling things.”

“Failure is the path of least persistence.”

“If you look back, you will soon be going that way.”

“It is better to ask some questions than to know all the answers.”

“A problem well-formulated is a problem half solved.”

“Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.”

“The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never does anything.”

“There’s no shame in failure—only in quitting.”

On a lighter note:

“The thing one fears the most is fear.”

“Only listen to fortune cookie, disregard all other fortune telling units.”


Sayings by Robert Chuckrow

“Seek perfection, but have patience when perfection is not achieved.”

“Skepticism is a tool for uncovering truth—not for obscuring it.”

“Teaching is re-living the joy of learning.”


*The Best Buddhist writing 2006, Edited by Melvin McLeod and the editors of the Shamala Sun, Shamala, Boston & London, 2006, p. 97.

**T’ai-chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secret Transmissions, Compiled and edited by Douglas Wile, Sweet Ch’i Press, Brooklyn, NY, 1983, p. 3.

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