“What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.”

“To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.”

“I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color--something which exists before all forms and colors appear... No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.”

“We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.”

“Christopher McCandless:"I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things.”

“Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.”

“When something dies is the greatest teaching.”