Echoes

Everything changes; nothing perishes.

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency or change. That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence. No one can deny this truth and all teaching of Buddhism is condensed within it. This is the teaching for all of us. Wherever we go this teaching is true. This teaching is also understood as the teaching of selflessness. Because each existence is in constant change, there is no abiding self.

A man must shape himself to a new mark when the old one goes to ground.

Nothing is permanent in all the world. All things are fluid; every image forms, wandering through change. Time itself flows on in constant motion, just like a river, for neither the river nor the swift hour can stop its course; but as wave impels wave, and as each wave comes, the one before is both impelled by the next and impels the one ahead, so time both flees and follows and is always new.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

The scenes of life are like the pictures in a magic lantern: we see them, one after another, with vivid distinctness; but as soon as one vanishes, it is utterly forgotten; and then the next appears, completely different from what went before — though at bottom it is always the same story.

Born under another sky, placed in the middle of an always-moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which sweeps along everything that surrounds him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything; he grows accustomed to naught but change, and concludes by viewing it as the natural state of man; he feels a need for it; even more, he loves it: for instability, instead of occurring to him in the form of disasters, seems to give birth to nothing around him but wonders...

I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.

We live in a world that is lit by lightning. So much is changing and will change, but so much endures and transcends time.

It is said that what is called the spirit of an age is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same.

A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.

What once sprung from the earth sinks back into the earth.

All is ephemeral — fame and the famous as well.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

From nothing comes nothing. Nothing that exists can be destroyed. All changes are due to the combination and separation of atoms.

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow.

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die.

You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.