In all my wild mountaineering, I have enjoyed only one avalanche ride; and the start was so sudden, and the end came so soon, I thought but little of the danger that goes with this sort of travel, though one thinks fast at such times.

If I’m in Rome for only 48 hours, I would consider it a sin against God to not eat cacio e pepe, the most uniquely Roman of pastas, in some crummy little joint where Romans eat. I’d much rather do that than go to the Vatican. That’s Rome to me.

I’ve been away since I was pretty much eight, traveling to the car tracks, and then going to Europe and traveling more.

I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it’s a very poor scheme for survival.

There are as many worlds as there are kinds of days, and as an opal changes its colors and its fire to match the nature of a day, so do I.

One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.

Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

A Religion of Evolution: that, when all is said and done, is what Man needs ever more explicitly if he is to survive and ‚superlive,‘ as soon as he becomes conscious of his power to ultra-hominize himself and of his duty to do so.

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I’d listen to Italian music.

To be able to travel the world, especially to places I never thought I’d be… it’s really, you know, still fascinating for me.

I am proud to have been born in Iowa. Through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy, it was a place of adventure and daily discoveries – the wonder of the growing crops, the excitements of the harvest, the journeys to the woods for nuts and hunting, the joys of snowy winters, the comfort of the family fireside, of good food and tender care.

Living indoors without fresh air quickly poisons the blood and makes people feel tired and seedy when they don’t know why. For myself, I sleep out of doors in winter as well as summer. I only feel tired or seedy when I have been indoors a lot. I only catch cold when I sleep in a room.

There is no way I would ask others to go on a Virgin Galactic flight if I didn’t feel it was safe enough for myself.

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

He who looks the higher is the more highly distinguished, and turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.

A person’s fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

How terribly downright must be the utterances of storms and earthquakes to those accustomed to the soft hypocrisies of society.

I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect – in terror.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

When I was climbing, I built up a close relationship with the Sherpa people.

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.

Paris is always a good idea.

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

The earth laughs in flowers.

Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.

Two things control men’s nature, instinct and experience.

I understood at a very early age that in nature, I felt everything I should feel in church but never did. Walking in the woods, I felt in touch with the universe and with the spirit of the universe.

I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wake-up letter.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Nature abhors annihilation.

Working conditions for me have always been those of the monastic life: solitude and frugality. Except for frugality, they are contrary to my nature, so much so that work is a violence I do to myself.

Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

What we call Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

It’s not the destination that matters. It’s the change of scene.

Water is the driving force of all nature.

Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.

Touring is hard on the body.

When one travels around the world, one notices to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or America, in Europe or Australia.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

I came to China to follow my star and to steep myself in the raw regions of the universe.

Light is the greatest disinfectant in nature and also in organizations.

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.

Golf without bunkers and hazards would be tame and monotonous. So would life.

We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we’re atheist.

There are no such things as Flowers there are only gladdened Leaves.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.

My favorite mode of transport is hot-air ballooning. It’s so graceful to be blown by the wind, to go where the wind takes you.

It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.

Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon.

I didn’t die young. So I am very lucky. There are other artists and people that didn’t survive certain things… people can imagine that I did the most dangerous, and I did the worst… for many reasons, I shouldn’t be here.

There are things around, and I know where they can be got quite easily, but I quite like waking up to the sunshine.

Nature is the incarnation of thought. The world is the mind precipitated.

When we go out to the country and just sit there, what we’re really doing is just switching off various kinds of alertness that we don’t have to use. When we do that, we are stopping being defensive. We are no longer shutting ourselves off from different types of experiences, we are welcoming them in.

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.‘

I love driving my car on any highway.