Being is so active that not only do all nouns become present participles but so do all adjectives.

When, as teacher, you witness a student becoming softer – a sight that warms your heart – then is all you know is that they're working really hard. This is the way in which softness comes from hardness.

Spirit is lightness and light.

I speak only one language, and it is not my own.

My teacher once quizzed me: "What is the most important quality in Taiji?" I immediately answered, "Softness," to which he barked, "No! Lightness!" Put softness above lightness and at some point you'll grind to a halt and fall into depression.

"Madness does not come by breaking out, but by giving in; by settling down in some dirty, little, self-repeating circle of ideas; by being tamed."

Destiny is the life that comes out of you when you place spirit first. Fate is what happens to you when you put self or ego first.

Learning to live ought to mean learning to die.

Before you can commence the arduous process of learning to quieten the mind and wake up the spirit, you must first grow up and learn to think for yourself.

Whenever I talk in class about destiny there is always someone who pipes, "But what is my destiny?" (we're all self-centred if nothing else). I once replied facetiously, "To save the world!" And then I realised that I was entirely right – that is indeed everyone's destiny.

"A thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists."

The delicate play of internal energy is far more delightful than anything the mind can come up with.

more song than substance

Taiji without eyes: all ears.

"I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else."

Education turned my head. Turned it into a cruel instrument.

Ultimately, it's not in the words, it's in the touch. Hence, proximity, unless you've been touched, in which case, you could be a million miles away.