The gnarled oak tree that no carpenter wants to cut down lives out its natural years in peace.

Great music has the fewest notes; great form is without shape; the Dao hides in nameless stillness.

Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are.

Where is the Dao? There is nowhere it is not. It is in the ant, in the weed, in the broken tile.

When human wisdom tries to improve on nature, it invariably cripples the horse and blinds the hawk.

Let horses run free in the grasslands, let birds soar in the high heavens, and let humans dwell in natural innocence.

To know how to wander without destination is the highest fruit of spiritual attainment.

Live quietly in the hollow of the ancient tree; drink the dew of early morning; have no regard for worldly praise.

When the tree falls in the deep forest, it returns to the earth to feed new blossoms. In the Dao, nothing is ever wasted.

The true traveler has no fixed destination and does not hurry to arrive.

Carefree wandering is the sacred art of being utterly at home wherever your feet touch the ground.

The sound of silence in the bamboo grove is the Dao whispering directly to the heart.

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.

There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone. The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.

Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness.

May the wind carry your silent prayers to the ears of the mountain, for mountains remember the songs of those who walk in peace.

Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few human or divine ingredients can.

The rose that opens its heart to the morning dew does not ask if it will fade by evening; it simply blooms in flawless splendor.

Every leaf in the garden is a page of the holy manuscript, whispering the eternal glory of the Creator.

The dawn wind carries the fragrance of eternity: wake up, breathe deeply, and begin anew.

Do not seek peace in the marketplace of noise; retire into the silent garden of contemplation.

The flower that blooms in the desert is a testament to the secret fountain beneath the sand.

The sweet breeze of the dawn is the messenger carrying the scent of the infinite.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

If you look deeply into a sheet of paper, you will see that there is a cloud floating in it. Without a cloud, there would be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow.

Without trees, we cannot make paper. So the cloud and the paper inter-are.

Around us, life bursts with miracles—a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops.

Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos—the trees, the clouds, everything.

When we touch the earth with awareness, we heal ourselves and we heal the planet.

The Earth is not outside of us; we are the Earth walking upon herself.

Silence is essential. We need silence just as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.

With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.

The wound is the place where the light enters you.

What you seek is seeking you.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.