There is nothing in nature that can't be taken as a sign of both mortality and invigoration.

To trace the history of a river . . . is to trace the history of the soul, the history of the mind descending and arising in the body.

There is nothing in nature that can't be taken as a sign of both mortality and invigoration.

True solace is finding none, which is to say, it is everywhere.

Ritual which could entail a wedding or brushing one's teeth goes in the direction of life. Through it we reconcile our barbed solitude with rushing, irreducible conditions of life.

To rise above treeline is to go above thought, and after, the descent back into bird song, bog orchids, willows, and firs is to sink into the preliterate parts of ourselves.

History is not truth versus falsehoods, but a mixture of both, a mélange of tendencies, reactions, dreams, errors, and power plays. What's important is what we make of it; its moral use. By writing history, we can widen readers' thinking and deepen their sympathies in every direction. Perhaps history should show us not how to control the world, but how to enlarge, deepen, and discipline ourselves.