33 Incredible Benjamin Hoff Quotes

Benjamin Hoff is an American author best known for his writings, ‘The Tao of Pooh’ and ‘The Te of Piglet.’ While he later went on to denounce the publishing industry and retire from book writing, many great words of wisdom has been shared during his career. Here is a listing to some of the best Benjamin Hoff quotes from his life.

“A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care, wisdom does.”

“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.”

“But isn’t the knowledge that comes from experience more valuable than the knowledge that doesn’t? It seems fairly obvious to some of us that a lot of scholars need to go outside and sniff around – walk through the grass, talk to the animals. That sort of thing.”

“By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, “There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

“Cleverness, after all, has its limitations. Its mechanical judgments and clever remarks tend to prove inaccurate with passing time, because it doesn’t look very deeply into things to begin with.”

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

“Do you want to be really happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got. Do you want to be really miserable? You can begin by being discontented.”

“Like silence after noise, or cool, clear water on a hot, stuffy day, Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy. Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness.”

“Lots of people talk to animals…Not very many listen though…that’s the problem.”

“No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value.”

“Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and unamusing way. They provide a lot of information. It’s just that there is Something More, and that Something More is what life is really all about.”

“Reality is what one makes it. And the more negative reality one nurtures and creates, the more of it one has.”

“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 no so rewarding once it has been given. If we add up all the rewards in our lives, we won’t have very much. But if we add up the spaces *between* the rewards, we’ll come up with quite a bit. And if we add up the rewards *and* the spaces, then we’ll have everything – every minute of the time that we spent.”

“The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can’t save time, you can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly,”

“The masters of life know the way, for they listen to the voice within them, the voice of wisdom and simplicity, the voice that reasons beyond cleverness and knows beyond knowledge.”

“The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don’t look clearly and objectively at situations, they don’t recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.”

“The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much.”

“The wise are who they are. They work with what they’ve got and do what they can do.”

“The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not.”

“There are things about ourselves that we need to get rid of; there are things we need to change. But at the same time, we do not need to be too desperate, too ruthless, too combative. Along the way to usefulness and happiness, many of those things will change themselves, and the others can be worked on as we go. The first thing we need to do is recognize and trust our own Inner Nature, and not lose sight of it.”

“Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, ‘This isn’t supposed to be happening this way,’ and trying harder to make it happen some other way.”

“Things may get a little odd at times, but they work out. You don’t have to try very hard to make them work out; you just let them.”

“Thousands of years ago, man lived in harmony with the rest of the natural world. Through what we would today call Telepathy, he communicated with animals, plants, and other forms of life-none of which he considered “beneath” himself, only different, with different jobs to perform. He worked side by side with earth angels and nature spirits, with whom he shared responsibility for taking care of the world.”

“Treat gain and loss the same.’ Don’t be Intimidated. Don’t make a Big Deal of anything – just accept things as they come to you.”

“We don’t need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that’s within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.”

“What we need to do is recognize inner nature and work with things as they are. When we don’t we get in trouble.”

“When we give up our images of self-importance and our ideas of what should be, we can help things become what they need to be.”

“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 Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.”

“When you know and respect your own inner nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.”

“Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond sight at the end of a straight line; they’re part of a continuous cycle that begins right here. They’re not only the ending, but the beginning as well.”

“Without difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves – about as interesting as concrete. Without problems, there can be no personal growth, no group achievement, no progress of humanity. But what mattes about problems is what one does with them.”

“You can’t save time. You can only spend it, but you can spend it wisely or foolishly.”

“You’d be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are.”

Benjamin Hoff shares the value of importance of having goals to achieve financial success and meet your life goals. Discussed in his book ‘The Tao of Pooh,’ Hoff focused on how to empower your future.