Zen/Taoist wisdom from the children's show Monkey.

"How long must a fool who misses the way wander through his many lives?"

"Dwelling on your brother's thoughts only multiplies your own, and you are far from the end of the way."

"The eunuch should not take pride in his chastity."

"Whatever you do, you do to yourself."

"The Buddha in each of us knows that no scriptures can save a single soul unless that soul makes the effort to achieve enlightenment."

"You may run from tigers, but where can you hide from your own fear? Desire is unquenchable - you can only free yourself from it."

"The monstrous is only a question of opinion. To some of us, opinions are so precious that we will die for them, again and again."

"Love is no excuse."

"Each life has its way, each way is a journey. And to leap to its end is like jumping from birth to death."

"There will be other demons on the way. No one is without them. The greatest sage is not without his evil. He has mastered it."

"To straighten out the crooked, you first do a more difficult thing - you must straighten yourself."

"Desire is a trap. Lustful desire makes pig of people, and slaves of pigs. One single word makes possible all civilisation. It's a small word, a magic word, yet it transforms, frees everyone. You must whisper it to yourself. The word is 'no'."

"A leather bag is nothing, nor is a bucket, nor a brain. They only become useful when something is put into them."

"Better than a hundred years of worship is the one moment of reverence for the sage who conquered himself."

"The strange fact is that the world goes on against all reasonable odd. A hundred years, and even unimaginable evil is just called history."

"Change is the only certainty."

"Your work is to discover your work. Then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it. No one purifies another."

"The way is never easy. Life hurts. To cure this pain is easy; just wait. It will go away soon enough. Yet there are things to be done. Do them now, or they must be done next time, or the next, or the next. They will be done. Only when they are done is the pain ended."

"Nothing ends, but it becomes something else."

"The winner sows hatred because the loser must suffer. Give up winning and losing, then find joy."

"It is change which frees. Perpetual day or night both enslave."

"As there are questions which have no answers, so there are answers to questions that were never asked. What was its balance? Both are essential. Everything that ever was is essential to make what is."

"Sometimes, to make the stupid grow, discipline is essential. The wrong in stealing something so useless as jewels is less that they belong to someone else, and more that you offend against yourself by coveting them at all."

"Evil destroys. It opposes even other evil. Evil must have good to feed upon. Goodness nourishes itself. When evil has captured the good, evil dies. Then the good will grow again. In these truths is there hope for the world."

"Live purely, be quiet."

"Grey hairs do not make a wise man. A man may waste a lifetime digging up a mountain in search of mythical crows' eggs. A man may waste a lifetime growing rich or chasing power. What is a life that's not wasted? Perhaps one in which we learn a little."

"What is truth when we lie to ourselves about so much, and know so little? What is the universe made of? How big is it? Is it eternal? Which politics are best for society? Even Pigsy understands that certainty is only another delusion."

"The harp does not play music if its strings are too tight or too loose. The music comes only when the strings are stretched just right."

"All journeys have a single purpose - to get to another place. There are places everywhere, and the differences between them are less than you might think. Some places are no more than a state of mind."

"If the world often seems unfair to people who believe in fate, this is because fatalists can come to believe they cannot change or improve. But if there is fate, it is fated that we make our own lives."

"Buddha taught that we are what we believe, and all that we are springs from our thoughts. If deluded thought can call forth ghosts or even death then greed can certainly make a magic wine to corrupt the mind which created it. The world is a trap for fools. Only he who sees goes free."

"Where do we come from? Where do we go? Only the sage knows. And the sage knows such questions are profitless. Daily, the clever man learns something. Daily, the wise man gives up some certainty. Perhaps."

"Love is a force almost as powerful as fire. Without love, we should be cold. Without fire, we should be alone in the dark. Yet for each there is a proper season and a golden mean. Love which fears ebb and flow is jealousy, and becomes a curse. The way is neither in the earth nor in the sky. The way is in the middle, the jewel at the heart of the lotus."

"Ignorance breeds fear, and fear breeds superstition. Ignorance, fear and superstition were always the beginning of nightmare."

"The blows of life transform us. Life will give us many forms. After Heaven and Earth exist, individuals develop to fill a space in-between. The birth is always difficult. We all need help to change and grow, and what if there is no help? No failure is forever. There is always change, and a new beginning."

"All the world shares the same sun. The higher the sun rises, the brighter it grows. The sun needs the earth also, to shine upon. Yet there are those who love the dark. Should the sun stop shining? Everything happens at its own time. What is strong must also be right, for only then will it last. If clouds obscure it, does the sun hurry past them? Clouds will pass. Every day the sun rises again."

"Nothing is destroyed for ever. After ruin comes return. The cruellest mountain has a peak, then the way is downhill; down into a valley which may be in shadow."

"Of those who seek the light, the wisest knows that each night is followed by a day, and day by night forever."

"It's easy to be stupid. Everybody sometimes is. It's hard to be clever if you are not. Is it always better to do difficult things? Does the sun find it hard to shine, the wind to blow, or the river to run? Sun, wind, water, earth - they do what they must simply by being themselves."

"Because great acts are all made up of small deeds, the wise man attempts nothing very big."

"A fool who knows he is a fool is farther along the road to wisdom than a wise man. What is there to know? After every summer comes an autumn, and there are times when even Heaven and Earth do not belong together. Love is not a crutch for cripples to lean upon."

"Who are you? What is identity? You like cheese, and sun on water. You know your age and what happens when your eyes grow tired. Filtered through some predisposition, you are the product of everything that ever happened to you, but if you lost your memory, who could you be?"

"Well has it been said by the ancient sages that of all the ways to clarity, the shortest is the way you choose for yourself."

"You must make the effort to reach clarity, or live life in a dream. Waking from the dream is hard, so be strict with yourself, but never stern. Sometimes, to put right a mistake only causes more errors, then it is better to pass on, and remembering to forgive yourself. Punishment is not an end in itself, and the middle way is golden."

"What is wisdom? It has little to do with beliefs. These change year by year from person to person. Only one who does not dare give up beliefs because he has no wisdom will insist that others believe as he does. Cleverness learns something, but wisdom gives up some certainty every day."

"Regret little. Regret belongs with the past. The future is a dream never realised, the past is a phantom - ghosts and dreams. Now is the only reality, and you will need all of yourself to live it."

"If change is the only certainty in the universe, it is inevitable that things will sometimes grow, and sometimes decay. Some men will grow more gifted, more powerful or richer than others. But if a man grows too rich without sharing his wealth, then like an overripe fruit, he will fall."

"Heaven must love fools, since it made so many of us."

"If it is love which holds so many different people together, there are surely many kinds of love. Which is right, and which is wrong? Is a rose better than a daffodil? Of all the loves, the first love is self. Until you learn to love yourself, you cannot love one another. We are all much more than we think, but are we perfect? It is necessary to change and grow. There is a right time for this, neither too early nor too late. That time is now."

"There are those who give, and those who take. Both extremes are wrong."

"The martyr has gone too far and will not find peace except in death, and the chance to try again. The ruthlessly selfish though are the stuff of monsters. Of those who only take, some want blood, and we call them vampires."

"Feelings are important, and it is wrong to neglect them. But, feelings are only a part of us. They can be mastered, or the tail wags the dog. Sometimes people are as different as ice and fire come together. Why not? A fire will burn on ice if one is strong, and the other is firm enough."

"Nothing lasts forever. In all the universe there are only two constants, and these are one. There will be change, and something that changes. The eternal things are natural, like the seasons, and the life and death of stars. And that consciousness in all myriad life forms will evolve towards knowing that everything is Buddha, and one. Nothing is lost; the total always stays the same. Though there are times which sometimes seem better or worse than others."

"If there is any plan in the universe, it can only be evolving consciousness. This is the difference between human and animal. People feel love and grief for others."

"The pilgrims still have as far to go as they have travelled. What end can there be to a journey as long as life? What end can there be to life? It is very hard to want nothing and to move on endlessly, and it is very easy. There is no end. There is one life, one pattern, and this is the pattern which is being followed."