Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.

Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun, like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.

When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.

But that’s love, to give away everything, to sacrifice everything, without the slightest desire to get anything in return.

Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.

Tears are curious things, for like earthquakes or puppet shows they can occur at any time, without any warning and without any good reason.

Because she competes with no one, no one can compete with her.

I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.

Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone – and finding that that’s ok with them.

The ones looking for happiness in others are the ones who haven’t learned contentment.

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

It feels good to think about you when I’m warm in bed. I feel as if you’re curled up there beside me, fast asleep. And I think how great it would be if it were true.

The Beautiful is always strange…it always contains a touch of strangeness, of simple, unpremeditated and unconscious strangeness, and it is that touch of strangeness that gives it its particular quality as Beauty.

There is a language older by far and deeper than words. It is the language of bodies, of body on body, wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone. It is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory. We have forgotten this language. We do not even remember that it exists.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.

I used to think I was tough, but then I realized I wasn’t. I was fragile and I wore thick fucking armor. And I hurt people so they couldn’t hurt me. And I thought that was what being tough was, but it isn’t.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

I realise there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.

Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?

I used to walk into a room full of people and wonder if they liked me… now I look around and wonder if I like them.

I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.

The eye doesn’t see. The brain sees. The eye just transmits. So what we see isn’t only determined by what comes through the eyes. What we see is affected by our memories, our feelings, and by what we’ve seen before.

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.

When you’re different, sometimes you don’t see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn’t.

I used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away.

I’m not very good at putting my feelings into words. That’s why people misunderstand me.

People who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.

Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice.

It’s very strange that the people you love are often the people you’re most cruel to.

I used to think the years would go by in order, that you get older one year at a time. But it’s not like that. It happens overnight.

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

I don’t like standard beauty. There is no beauty without strangeness.

You know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon everything’s different.

I understood myself only after I destroyed myself. And only in the process of fixing myself, did I know who I really was.

There is no shame in being hungry for another person. There is no shame in wanting very much to share your life with somebody.

The future is a concept, it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.

Silence doesn’t always mean you have nothing to say. It may mean you realize that words aren’t always necessary.

If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting the rest of our lives.

People who truly love us can be divided into two categories: those who understand us, and those who forgive us our worst sins. Rarely do you find someone capable of both.