Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism.

We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow. We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm.

is the soul's retiring of itself, that by a serious and solemn thinking upon God, the heart may be raised up to heavenly affections.

Learn to relax. Your body is precious, as it houses your mind and spirit. Inner peace begins with a relaxed body.

I just knew that I wanted to attach myself to it. The best way for me to describe it is that something bloomed in my chest. I felt some sense of opening or wonder. I knew instinctively that the wilderness was the place that I felt most gathered.

To become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life.

But she is happiest alone. She is happiest alone.

Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.

My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold and anything else is just a waste of time.

No, Professor, it aint nothin like that. You dont have to be virtuous. You just has to be quiet. I cant speak for the Lord but the experience I've had leads me to believe that he'll speak to anybody that'll listen. You damn sure aint got to be virtuous.

I aint heard no voice, he said. When it stops, said Tobin, you'll know you've heard it all your life. Is that right? Aye. The kid turned the leather in his lap. The expriest watched him. At night, said Tobin, when the horses are grazing and the company is asleep, who hears them grazing? Dont nobody hear them if they're asleep. Aye. And if they cease their grazing who is it that wakes? Every man. Aye, said the expriest. Every man.

He heard the fireman clank shut the door and leave and he poured the coffee and stirred in milk from a can and sipped and blew and read of wildness and violence across the cup's rim. As it was then, is now and ever shall.