Paradoxical Wisdom Quotes

No better love than love with no objective, no more satisfying work than work with no purpose. If you could give up tricks and cleverness, that would be the cleverest trick!

We need wisdom the most when we believe in it the least.

In my experience, it's common that deep truths exist at both extremes of a dialectic, and the wisest stance on an issue will incorporate 'both of the opposites within itself.'

Heaven is in everything: follow the light, hide in the cloudiness and begin in what is. Do this and your understanding will be like not understanding and your wisdom will be like not being wise. By not being wise you will become wise later.

The most exquisite paradox; as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all.

One who loves must learn fear. One who fears must learn love. The thinker must do. The doer must think. The pacifist must fight, the fighter must find peace. If you flow as a river, burn as a fire. If you burn as a furnace, flow as a river. If you fly as a bird, sit firm as a rock. If you sit firmly, then fly as a bird. Be a fire that flows. A rock that flies. Love with fear and fear with love. For we are not fire, not water, not air, not rocks, not thoughts, not deeds, not fear, not love. We are G-dly beings.

Those who know are not learned. Those who are learned do not know.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

All wisdom ends in paradox.

My soul is full of whispered song,-My blindness is my sight;The shadows that I feared so longAre full of life and light.

Don't try to understand it. You won't succeed. Don't try to see it. You can't. Try to live it, and you will be living out of the center.

The Gods sell when they give. Glory is paid for with disgrace. Poor are the happy, for they are Just what passes.

The whole world is incapable of judging either right or wrong. but it is certain that actionless action can judge both right and wrong.

What I’ve learned along the way is that existence is cosmic theatre, but paradoxically, we should play our roles to the absolute best of our ability while having the wisdom not to take them too seriously.

The best advice comes from people who don't give advice.

Well, I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.

The worst men often give the best advice. Our deeds are sometimes better than our thoughts.

The value of teaching without words and accomplishing without action is understood by few in the world.

As early pioneers in the knowing, that when you lose your reason, you attain highest perfect knowing.

My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them--as steps--to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the whole world aright.

There is no folly like the folly of the wise.

Advice is always awesome because it never makes any sense when you compare it all together. It always contradicts other advice. I love advice.

Humor and paradox are often the only ways to respond to life's sorrow with grace.

The old knowledge had been difficult but not distressing. It had been all paradox and myth, and it had made sense. The new knowledge was all fact and reason, and it made no sense.