Bhante Quote

"Some religious texts talk about the need to give up worldly pleasure or happiness, but I would personally like to see people give up their attachment to worldly misery. I would like to see them enjoying more of the simple pleasures of life. Many of those who are supposed to be wallowing in worldly pleasures, are who have everything at their command, tend to look miserable, gaunt and even miserable."

p. 90-91 Living Wisely: Further Advice from Nagarjuna's Precious Garland

The first one

p.72 of the Survey:

"It is not when we merely do a thing, but when we do it for the first time, that the most formidable obstacles are encountered. We therefore honour the Master not only as an Arhant, or one by whom, having qualified himself for the superhumanily difficult task by practicing the Ten Perfections for an incalculable number of lives, without a teacher and without a guide breaks through the obstacle that block the road to Nirvana and throws it open once more to the traffic of humanity."

(italics in the original, not mine)

The ideal student

From the Survey (9th edition, 2001), p.40:

The ideal student of Buddhism would be one who, whether scientifically trained or not, was prepared to admit the possibility of a spiritual experience which would transcend the psychical senses and rational mind, and who would be willing to give unprejudiced consideration to the Buddha's claim that he had achieved this experience himself and that by following his teaching others might achieve it for themselves too.

Bante quote

From The Yogi's Joy p.170:

One's personality is not set in stone. It may seem as though there is nothing you can do about who you are, but if the Dharma is about anything it is about our inherent capacity to change our inherent conditioning.