That with him the set times of prayer were not different from other times: that he retired to pray, according to the directions of his Superior, but that he did not want such retirement. nor ask for it, because his greatest business did not divert him from GOD.

You cannot force the Now. — But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.

In solitude you are least alone. — Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. In solitude you are least alone. Make good use of it.

Anxiety. — Anxiety is the gap between the NOW and the THEN. So if you are in the NOW, you can't be anxious, because your excitement flows immediately into ongoing spontaneous activity.

Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear of itself.

Do not run away; let go. Do not seek, for it will come when least expected.

The long-drawn virgin vales; the mild blue hill-sides; as over these there steals the hush, the hum; you almost swear that play-wearied children lie sleeping in these solitudes, in some glad May-time, when the flowers of the woods are plucked. And all this mixes with your most mystic mood; so that fact and fancy, half-way meeting, interpenetrate, and form one seamless whole.

when cruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.

I started at a sound so strange, long-drawn, and musically wild and unearthly, that the ball of free will dropped from my hand and I stood gazing...

he will have no one near him but Nature herself; and her he takes to wife in the wilderness of waters, and the best of wives she is, though she keeps so many moody secrets.

My cheek blanches white while I write; I start at the scratch of my pen; my own mad brood of eagles devours me; fain would I unsay this audacity; but an iron-mailed hand clenches mine in a vice, and prints down every letter in my spite.

Typically, preachers in our work-oriented society teach that God rested to provide humanity with a precedent for rest, an example for our good. Seldom have I heard mention of the other meaning for rest, the one used in musical notation. This meaning refers to cessation rather than recovery from weariness. Our enjoyment of music owes much to these brief pauses.