Wabi sabi - the japanese art of impermanence

is an excellent book by Andrew Juniper (isbn 0-8048-3482-2). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

As the silence between notes is vital, so the space provided in art is just as expressive, and wabi sabi has used brevity to magnify the intensity of the expression.

There is an expression in Japanese that says that someone who makes things of poor quality is in fact worse than a thief, because he doesn't make things that will last or provide true satisfaction. A thief at least redistributes the wealth of society.

Zen monks believe that our reason is the greatest source of misunderstanding because it actually hinders a student's deeper comprehension of the world that exists beyond words. Humans are slaves to words and the reason they produce.

Translation is treason (part of an Italian proverb)

Unlike many [ceramics] in the West they rarely have handles, as the tactile nature of the pots makes handling them a part of the pleasure.

The minimal expression used in chabana flower arranging is again reinforcing the idea that less is indeed more and in some ways the work of an artist is as much in what they refrain from adding as what they actually put in.

Whereas modern design often uses inorganic materials to defy the natural aging effects of time, wabi sabi embraces them and seeks to use this transformation as an intergral part of the whole.

More than any learned ideas, it was the effort and attitude of the gardener that would decide the outcome of the garden.

The attitude does not come from the art.

Attach your lives to a goal not people or things [Albert Einstein]