“There’s magic in the water that draws all men away form the land, that leads them over hills, down creeks and streams and rivers to the sea.”

Meditation and water are wedded for ever.

The eyes are the gateway to the soul.

Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.

All round and round does the world lie as in a sharp-shooter’s ambush, to pick off the beautiful illusions of youth, by the pitiless cracking rifles of the realities of age.

Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.

Art is the objectification of feeling.

You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know any thing.

Nature is nobody’s ally.

To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

There is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. Like balloons, we are nothing till filled.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

I had to discover very quickly that class origins cannot be erased, regardless of whether we climb up or down the sociocultural ladder.

At various points, in big ways and small, we get knocked down. If we stay down, grit loses. If we get up, grit prevails.

I never wanted to just glamorize the playa lifestyle and not touch on the down side. I wanted everyone who’s in a desperate situation to know that, if they wanna choose that kinda lifestyle, they gotta be aware of everything that comes with it! It’s not just about the cars, the ladies and the money.

An it isn’t so much that the church is in bondage to Big Business and doctrines as laid down by millionaires – though a lot of churches are that, too.

Writers themselves don’t analyze what they do; to analyze would be to look down while crossing a canyon on a tightrope.

I’ve tried not to get too bogged down by what people want you to be.

What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.

Travel with the same woman in a railway car for twelve hours, and you will have written her down in your own mind in quite other language than that of love.