Kun > Kun's Quotes

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
― Michelangelo Buonarroti

“Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.”
― Ryokan

“Time is what matters. As time goes by, you and I will be carried inexorably into the mainstream of our period, even though we’re unaware of what it is. And later, when they say that young men in the early Taisho era thought, dressed, talked, in such and such a way, they’ll be talking about you and me. We’ll all be lumped together…. In a few decades, people will see you and the people you despise as one and the same, a single entity.”
― Yukio Mishima, Spring Snow

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
― Maya Angelou

“This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
― Alan Watts

“You flounder through life, struggling desperately so you won't drown, even though you would float if you'd just relax.”
― Natsuki Takaya, Fruits Basket: The Complete Collection

“You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.”
― Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

“Every adjective and adverb is worth five cents. Every verb is worth fifty cents”
― Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook

“Literature is still doing the same job that mythology did earlier, but filling in its huge cloudy shapes with sharper lights and deeper shadows.”
― Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination

“Study has been called a prayer to truth.”
― Antonin Sertillanges, THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE, Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods - Sertillanges

“The reward of a work is to have produced it; the reward of effort is to have grown by it.”
― Antonin Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”
― Charles Bukowski, What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire