“Have you not noticed that the wild flowers are becoming scarcer every year? It may be that their wise men have told them to depart till man becomes more human. Perhaps they have migrated to heaven.”

“These Taoists' ideas have greatly influenced all our theories of action, even to those of fencing and wrestling. Jiu-jitsu, the Japanese art of self-defence, owes its name to a passage in the Tao-teking. In jiu-jitsu one seeks to draw out and exhaust the enemy's strength by non-resistance, vacuum, while conserving one's own strength for victory in the final struggle. In art the importance of the same principle is illustrated by the value of suggestion. In leaving something unsaid the beholder is given a chance to complete the idea and thus a great masterpiece irresistibly rivets your attention until you seem to become actually a part of it. A vacuum is there for you to enter and fill up the full measure of your aesthetic emotion.”

“Behold the complacent salesman retailing the Good and True.One can even buy a so-called Religion, which is really but commonmorality sanctified with flowers and music. Rob the Church of heraccessories and what remains behind? Yet the trusts thrive marvelously,for the prices are absurdly cheap,--a prayer for a ticket to heaven,a diploma for an honorable citizenship.Hide yourself under a bushelquickly, for if your real usefulness were known to the world you wouldsoon be knocked down to the highest bidder by the public auctioneer.”

“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.”

“[Tea-masters] have given emphasis to our natural love of simplicity, and shown us the beauty of humility. In fact, through their teachings tea has entered the life of the people.”

“In my young days I praised the master whose pictures I liked, but as my judgment matured I praised myself for liking what the masters had chosen to have me like.”

“The ancient sages never put their teachings in systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended up making their hearers wise.”