I had forgotten what mustard fields looked like... Sheet upon sheet of blazing yellow, half way between sulphur and celandine, with hot golden sunshine pouring down upon them out of a dazzling June sky. It thrilled me like music.

I have always felt that the moment when first you wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours.

The Sussex lanes were very lovely in the autumn ... spendthrift gold and glory of the year-end ... earth scents and the sky winds and all the magic of the countryside which is ordained for the healing of the soul.

The refectory is a cenacle in which the taking of food is transfigured almost into a sacrament.

Once allow your soul to be disturbed by any violent emotion and, like the waters of a tempest-tossed lake, it can no longer reflect the divine Image.

What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God.

It is a very wonderful experience indeed, when, at fifty years old, you suddenly discover that for the first time in your life, you are really free to be yourself.