It was morning; through the high window I saw the pure, bright blue of the sky as it hovered cheerfully over the long roofs of the neighboring houses. It too seemed full of joy, as if it had special plans, and had put on its finest clothes for the occasion.

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

People say I look so happy – and I say, ‚That’s the Botox.‘

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

Most women in my family start to get sick and start dying in their 40s, and I am going to be very happy to become 50 and 60. I love getting older.

I give the name of cosmic sense to the more or less confused affinity that binds us psychologically to the All which envelops us. The existence of this feeling is indubitable, and apparently as old as the beginning of thought… The cosmic sense must have been born as soon as man found himself facing the forest, the sea and the stars.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

Nature has always had more force than education.

Many readers fail to realize this, but ‚The Color Purple‘ is a theological text. It is about the reclamation of one’s original God: the earth and nature.

I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

Each piece, or part, of the whole of nature is always merely an approximation to the complete truth, or the complete truth so far as we know it. In fact, everything we know is only some kind of approximation because we know that we do not know all the laws as yet.

I’m happiest with my family around me.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

I suppose we need not go mourning the buffaloes. In the nature of things, they had to give place to better cattle, though the change might have been made without barbarous wickedness.

But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

Nature teaches us that tens of billions of light years may have passed, and life in all of its expressions has always been subjected to an incredible combination of matter and radiation.

The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

That the divided but contiguous particles of bodies may be separated from one another is a matter of observation; and, in the particles that remain undivided, our minds are able to distinguish yet lesser parts, as is mathematically demonstrated.

Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

Beauty is the greatest seducer of man.

My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.

Only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other is to let her have it.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination. So when you attend a retreat, you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome.

There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.

A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.

True wealth is not of the pocket, but of the heart and of the mind.

My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

We all have to live together, so we might as well live together happily.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

I really didn’t consider myself happy or unhappy.

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.

Until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire, you will be neither successful nor happy.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.

I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I’d invented it, because it is very true.

True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

If I died tomorrow, I would be a happy girl.

I am a generous man, by nature, and far more trusting than I should be. Indeed. The real world is risky territory for people with generosity of spirit. Beware.

I have this really high priority on happiness and finding something to be happy about.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

It’s funny; recently I’ve started to notice people’s impersonations of me, and it’s basically like a hyperactive child.

Anyone who’s looked into a newborn’s innocent eyes should realize how incredible it is to be blessed with a new life.

Isn’t it funny how babies laugh a lot? I read a toddler, a young child laughs 300 times a day. The average adult laughs, like, four times a day. God put it in them. He put the laugh in us, but I think sometimes we let life get us down, you know, have bad breaks, and we lose our breaks.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.

A women who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.

I’m so happy I discovered early how wonderful music makes me feel.

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?