We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in 'renouncing' one's own self, by which I mean making up one's mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being 'happy' or 'unhappy' in the usual meaning of the words.

Find joy and solace in the simple, and cultivate your utopia by feeling the Tao in every cubic inch of space.

There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand. I love a broad margin to my life.

it's best to accept life as it really is and not as I imagined it to be

If you concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens...Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.

You're mistaken, Father. You were in paradise, but you didn't recognize it. It's the same with most people in this world; they seek suffering in the most joyous of places because they think they are unworthy of happiness.

I savour the idea of my new state: single and a millionaire.

it is one thing to get used to something, another to be satisfied.

You can't want to be happy, because that's too easy and too boring.

See, it's not that I'm jealous of others. I just don't understand why they can be happy and I can't.

You worked so hard to achieve. It blinds us to everything else, to the moments we've joyfully experienced, to happy times and the bonds created during those occasions. How is it that hatred?