Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.

How many times do we lose an occasion for soul work by leaping ahead to final solutions without pausing to savor the undertones? We are a radically bottom-line society, eager to act and to end tension, and thus we lose opportunities to know ourselves for our motives and our secrets.

A pretty wife is something for the fastidious vanity of a roue to retire upon.

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity.

The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.

I thought that the light-house looked lovely as hope, That star on life's tremulous ocean.