Over and over again mediocrity is promoted because real worth isn't to be found.

When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?

If we are lucky, we can give in and rest without feeling guilty. We can stop doing and concentrate on being.

We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.

I was taught that I had to 'master' subjects. But who can 'master' beauty, or peace, or joy?

It's all so beautiful . . . the spring . . . and books and music and fires. . . . Why aren't they enough?

The demon of acedia -- also called the noonday demon -- is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. . . . He makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and . . . he instills in the heart of the monk a hatred for the place, a hatred for his very life itself.