Quotes About Serenity

And there was a perfectly lovely room called the Browsing Room, with shelf upon shelf of books, and several tall windows looking out into the trees, and easy chairs with reading lamps, and sofas. It was far and away the finest, most comfortable room I had ever seen in my life, and I loved to sit in it.

All friends and comfortable with each other have ceased to talk, each occupied in that wide quiet with his own thoughts.

Accept what comes from silence. Make the best you can of it. Of the little words that come out of the silence, like prayers prayed back to the one who prays, make a poem that does not disturb the silence from which it came. — Wendell Berry, from "How To Be a Poet," Given . (Counterpoint March 1, 2006) Originally published 2005.

a place where thought can take its shape as quietly in the mind as water in a pitcher...

Although we cannot command it, we choose joy, making a deliberate commitment to happiness (essentially another word for peace).

wisdom of the outdoors, until

Silence is the beginning of wisdom.

Seek not to have things happen as you choose them, but rather choose that they should happen as they do; and you shall live prosperously.

In the face of warfare and inevitable death, there is no wisdom but in ataraxia,—"to look on all things with a mind at peace.

There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find

speak silence with thy glimmering eyes, And wash the dusk with silver.

The sun descending in the west, The evening star does shine; The birds are silent in their nest. And I must seek for mine. The moon, like a flower In heaven's high bower, With silent delight Sits and smiles on the night

All the itch and clutter of the world, its bother and fuss, its nagging pettiness, can wear you down so easily. And this is why I like the beach ...

Then, as I stood in that English garden on the soft early summer night, I felt a surge of pure well-being engulf my whole body. I felt a shivering current of happiness and benevolence flow through me.

I say to myself, at last you are in tune with the universe.

Observe the jasmine lightness of the moon.

Ah, Madam, what good are your thoughts romantic but true beside this gaiety of the sun and that huge appetite? Look! from a glass pitcher she serves clear water to the white chickens. What are your memories beside that purity?

Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.

But peace is my heart: I know it is.

I am not religious, I reckon. But peace is in my heart: I know it is.

I am too old for this. I was born too old for it, and so I am sick to death for quiet.

He was as calm as a god who has seen both life and death, and seen nothing of particular importance in either of them.

the face which had long since forgotten how to be young and yet absolutely impenetrable, absolutely serene: no mourning, not even grief

the long sleep that outlasts love