Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

I fear that there are too many priesthood bearers who have done little or nothing to develop their ability to access the powers of Heaven.

For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.

The waving of a pine tree on the top of a mountain – a magic wand in Nature’s hand – every devout mountaineer knows its power; but the marvelous beauty value of what the Scotch call a breckan in a still dell, what poet has sung this?

The devil is a peace stealer, and he works hard to set us up to get upset. But we can learn how to change our approach so we don’t live upset all of the time. And Jesus gives us the best example to follow.

My wife is already in Heaven.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the ‚Not Me,‘ that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, ‚Nature.‘

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

I’m trying to throw a big broad net to try to get people interested in God and believe that He’s for them and has a purpose.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.

What is imponderable in the world is greater than what we can handle.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

There are many levels of Christianity. There are many notions about God. To believe that God is a person is just one of the notions of God that you can find in Christianity. So, we should not say that there is one Christianity. There are many Christianities.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

God’s mercy is fresh and new every morning.

What I call my ‚self‘ now is hardly a person at all. It’s mainly a meeting place for various natural forces, desires, and fears, etcetera, some of which come from my ancestors, and some from my education, some perhaps from devils. The self you were really intended to be is something that lives not from nature but from God.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

The formula ‚Two and two make five‘ is not without its attractions.

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

The coniferous forests of the Yosemite Park, and of the Sierra in general, surpass all others of their kind in America, or indeed the world, not only in the size and beauty of the trees, but in the number of species assembled together, and the grandeur of the mountains they are growing on.

The gods‘ service is tolerable, man’s intolerable.

He that does good to another does good also to himself.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.

White… is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black… God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.

If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it’s my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

I don’t think that the total creation took place in six days as we now measure time. If we can confirm, say, the Big Bang theory, that doesn’t at all cause me to question my faith that God created the Big Bang.

If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

When we trust God more than our feelings, it confuses the devil. I mean, when he throws you his best shot and he can’t budge you from believing God, he won’t know what to do with you anymore.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

A radical generally meant a man who thought he could somehow pull up the root without affecting the flower. A conservative generally meant a man who wanted to conserve everything except his own reason for conserving anything.

Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents, happening in all sorts of ways, legislate in all sorts of ways.

The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

When we think of the major threats to our national security, the first to come to mind are nuclear proliferation, rogue states and global terrorism. But another kind of threat lurks beyond our shores, one from nature, not humans – an avian flu pandemic.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.

When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, ‚What sign do I want to give to God?‘ That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear.