We took a bus to the nearby monastery of one of the last great Tang dynasty Chan masters, Yun-men. Yun-men was known for his pithy one word Zen. When asked What is the highest teaching of the Buddha? he replied: An appropriate statement. On another occasion, he answered: Cake. I admired his directness.

Nudity is the uniform of the other side... nudity is a shroud.

Milan Kundera

The biggest challenge is to stay focused. It's to have the discipline when there are so many competing things.

Alexa Hirschfeld

Don't listen to those who say, you taking too big a chance. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says. they all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections. I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respects.

Neil Simon

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent.

Norman Mailer

What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes? Take fifty of our current proverbial sayings -- they are so trite, so threadbare, that we can hardly bring our lips to utter them. None the less they embody the concentrated experience of the race and the man who orders his life according to their teaching cannot go far wrong.

Norman Douglas

My efforts in Congress are guided by the belief that environmental preservation and restoration are a critical part of the legacy we leave to future generations.

Sue Kelly

The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.

Martin Heidegger

The schools would fail through their silence, the Church through its forgiveness, and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. The new generation has to hear what the older generation refuses to tell it.

Simon Wiesenthal

In general people feel more relaxed about participating in politics. They aren't frightened as they used to be.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Remember that there is always a limit to self-indulgence but none to self-restraint, and let us daily progress in that direction.

Mahatma Gandhi

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

Matsuo Basho