“The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.”

“When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it.”

“If a Manx cat tells you that it is trying to preserve its long, beautiful tail, you don't have to believe it - especially if you have eyes.”

“A man from the Land of Fools wanted to pull down the clouds.'Why?' someone asked him.'To squeeze out the rain.”

“A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.”

“You say that this society will come to an end, because societies always have done so. I wonder whether they have ended because they were not really societies at all.”

“It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.”