Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.

- Matsuo Basho

The oak tree: not interested in cherry blossoms.

- Matsuo Basho

Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.

- Matsuo Basho

The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.

- Matsuo Basho

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.

- Matsuo Basho

Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things-mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity-and enjoy th…

- Matsuo Basho

Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.

- Matsuo Basho

Learn the rules, and then forget them.

- Matsuo Basho

A flute with no holes is not a flute.

- Matsuo Basho