Quotes About Serenity

This [Ghost Ranch] is my kind of world. The kind of things one sees in cities . . . well, you know, it's better to look out the window at the sage.

I often lay on that bench looking up into the tree, past the trunk and up into the branches. It was particularly fine at night with the stars above the tree.

Lying spread-eagled in the silky water, gazing into the sky, only moving my hands and feet slightly to keep afloat, I was looking at the Milky Way stretched like a chiffon scarf across the sky and wondering how many stars it contained. I could hear the voices of the others, laughing and talking on the beach, echoing over the water

It seemed to me, in the gloom, that the flowers had moved closer to her, had crowded eagerly about her bed, as though waiting for her to tell them something. A ravaged old queen, lying in state, surrounded by her whispering court of flowers.

Eventually the warm wind and the rain of winter seemed to polish the sky, so that when January arrived it shone a clear, tender blue … the same blue as that of the tiny flames that devoured the olive logs in the charcoal pits. The nights were still and cool, with a moon so fragile it barely freckled the sea with silver points. The dawns were pale and translucent until the sun rose, mist-wrapped, like a gigantic silkworm cocoon, and washed the island with a delicate bloom of gold dust.

fed under the orange and lemon trees

choir of cicadas whose song made the air tremble.

escaped to the veranda, where he stood in the moonlight taking deep breaths.

Roger and I would squat in the heavily scented shade of the myrtle bushes and watch the array of creatures that passed us; at certain times of the day the branches were as busy as the main street of a town.

the shallow waters too warm to be refreshing.

I stepped into the gin-clear sea which was as warm as a bath.

This day I choose to spend in perfect peace.

They saw that temptation coming but neither fought it off nor turned away from it toward something else. Simply, briefly, they chose not to hop on board with it. What did they do instead? Nothing. They let their spaciousness be. This

And her laughter was like the wind, the water, and a thousand songbirds singing together.

Come, lay thy head upon my breast, And I will kiss thee into rest.

Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

The highest wisdom is continual cheerfulness; such a state, like the region above the moon, is always clear and serene.

Burdens become light when cheerfully borne.

The most delightful advantage of being bald one can hear the snowflakes.

Sweet and low, sweet and low, Wind of the western sea, Low, low, breathe and blow, Wind of the western sea! Over the rolling waters go, Come from the dying moon, and blow, Blow him again to me; While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; not dread your last day, not long for it.

To live long, it is necessary to live slowly.

I get up and I bless the light thin clouds and the first twittering of birds, and the breathing air and smiling face of the hills.

Oft when the white, still dawn lifted the skies and pushed the hills apart, I have felt it like a glory in my heart.