Quotes from Benjamin Hoff

The power-hungry wanter their followers to believe that heaven was a place to which some people - and only people - went after death, a place that could be reached by those who had the approval of their organizations. So not even the perfected spirits were able to restore the wholeness of truth, because of interference by the human ego.

A way of life that keeps saying, "Around the next corner, above the next step," works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good that only a few get to where they would naturally have been in the first place-happy and good- and the rest give up and fall by the side of the road, cursing the world, which is not to blame but which is there to help show the way.

If "good" is not necessarily good, and "bad" not necessarily bad, what is "small"?

So quite often, the easiest way to get rid of a Minus is to change it to a Plus. Sometimes you will find that characteristics you try hard to eliminate eventually come back, anyway. But if you do the right things, they will come back in the right ways. And sometimes those very tendencies that you dislike the most can show up in the right time to save your life, somehow.

When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the uncared block: life is fun.

Knowledge and cleverness tend to concern themselves with the wrong sorts of things, and a mind confused by knowledge, cleverness and abstract ideas tends to go chasing after things that don't matter, or that don't even exists, instead of seeing, appreciating, and making use of what is fit in front of it.

If you compare the City with the Forest, you may begin to wonder why it's man who goes around classifying himself as The Superior Animal. "Superior to what?" asked Pooh. "I don't know, Pooh. I've tried to think of something, but I just can't come up with an answer." "If people were Superior to Animals, they'd take better care of the world," said Pooh.

He tried too hard", said Pooh."and when you try too hard it doesn't work. Try grabbing something quickly and precisely with a tensed up arm; then relax and try it again. Try doing something with a tense mind. The surest way to become tense, awkward and confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard- one that thinks too much.

It's really great fun to go someplace where there are no timesaving devices because, when you do, you find that you have lots of time. Elsewhere, you're too busy working to pay for machines to save you time so you won't have to work so hard.

When you discard arrogance' cool gritty, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the uncared block: life is fun.

Now one rather annoying thing about scholars is that they are always using big words that some of us can't understand and one sometimes gets the impression that those intimidating words are there to keep us from understanding. That way the scholars can appear superior, and will not likely be suspected of not knowing something. After all, from the scholarly point of view, it's practically a crime to not know everything.

In the story of the Ugly Duckling, when did the Ugly Duckling stop feeling Ugly? When he realized he was a Swan. Each of us has something Special, a Swan of some sort, hidden inside somewhere. But until we recognize that it's there, what can we do but splash around, treading water?

As we have likely recognized by now, no two snowflakes, trees, or animals are alike. No two people are the same, either. Everything has its own Inner Nature.

A Weakness of some sort can do you a big favor, if you acknowledge that it's there. The same goes for one's limitations, whether Tiggers know it or not- and Tiggers usually don't. That's the trouble with Tiggers, you know: they can do everything. Very unhealthy.

Cleverness, as usual, takes all the credit it possibly can. But it's not the clever mind that's responsible when things work out. It's the mind that sees what's in front of it, and follows the nature of things.

Do you want to be really happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you've got.

Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and up amusing way. They provide a lot of information. It's just that there is something more, and that something more is what life is really about.

In the Age of Perfect Virtue, men lived among the animals and birds as members of one large family. There were no distinctions between "superior" and "inferior" to separate one man or species from another. All retained their natural Virtue and lived in a state of pure simplicity.

Our Bisy Backson religions, sciences, and business ethics have tried their hardest to convince us that there is a Great Reward waiting for us somewhere, and that what we have to do is spend our lives working like lunatics to catch up with it. Whether it's up in the sky, behind the next molecule, or in the executive suite, it's somehow always farther along than we are—just down the road on the other side of the world, past the moon, beyond the stars…

The honey doesn't taste so good once it is being eaten; the goal doesn't mean so much once it is reached; the reward is not so rewarding once it has been given.

Knowledge doesn't really care. Wisdom does.

By Enjoying the Process, we can stretch that awareness out so that it's no longer only a moment, but covers the whole thing.

In other words, knowledge and experience do not necessarily speak the same language.

The athletic sort of Backson - one of the many common varieties - is concerned with physical fitness, he says. But for some reason, he sees it as something that has to be pounded in from the outside, rather than built up from the inside. Therefore, he confuses exercise with work. He works when he works, works when he exercises, and, more often than not, works when he plays. Work, work, work.