the divine has taken a few steps back from humankind, perhaps in revulsion, perhaps because we don’t deserve to look directly upon holy beings anymore…. When the divine enters the world these days from outside...

Money and beauty are defenses against the sorrows of this world but neither can undo the past. Only time will conquer time. The way forward is the only way back to innocence and to peace.

Appearances are not reality; but they often can be a convincing alternative to it. You can control appearances most of the time, but facts are what they are. When the facts are too sharp, you...

Strange how the deepest part of us isn’t able to speak more clearly to the part of us that lives only here in the shallows of the world.

The dead can be even more frustrating to deal with than are many of the living, which is astonishing when you consider it’s the living who run the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Fate isn’t a straight road,” I said, becoming the oracle that earlier in the day I had declined to be for her. “There are forks in it, many different routes to different ends. We have...

Not immediately able to proceed, I stood there, inexpressibly grateful that my life, for all its terrors, is so filled with moments of grace.

I assure you the law isn’t a line engraved in marble, immovable and unchangeable through the centuries. Rather…the law is like a string, fixed at both ends but with a great deal of play in...

Golden retrievers are not bred to be guard dogs, and considering the size of their hearts and their irrepressible joy in life, they are less likely to bite than to bark, less likely to bark...

Mr. Thomas, any scientist will tell you that in nature many systems appear to be chaotic, but when you study them long enough and closely enough, strange order always underlies the appearance of chaos.

How obvious can it be? … The purpose of makeup is to defy the degradations of time, and time is just a synonym for death.

Be afraid in proportion to the threat.

I don’t desire a change of scenery or exotic experiences. My heart yearns for familiarity, stability, the comfort of home- and my sanity depends on it.

When men in power decide that things need to be rebalanced at any cost, the violence is never brief and never really directed solely at the imbalance that supposedly inspired it. The rule of law...

My only armor is my belief that life has meaning…

In eighty-six years, child, I’ve learned the world is a far more mysterious place than most people realize and that every moment of life is woven through with meaning.

The line between moral behavior and narcissistic self-righteousness is thin and difficult to discern. The man who stands before a crowd and proclaims his intention to save the seas is convinced that he is superior...

In self-defense and in defense of the innocent, cowardice is the only sin.

There’s no tragedy in nature, only process — and therefore no triumph, either.

…because wherever else the future leads, it leads ultimately to death, the end that is present in my beginning and in yours.

…up to no good—and pleased about it.

Pico Mundo is a prosperous town. But no degree of prosperity can be sufficient to eliminate all misfortune, and sloth is impervious to opportunity.

Hope, love and faith are in the waiting.

If you’re going to keep the music in you, Jonah, you’ve got to play a little bit every day purely for pleasure. Otherwise, you’ll lose the joy of it, and if you lose the joy,...

Whatever happens here, trust your heart. It’s as true as any compass.

All but universally, human architecture values front elevations over back entrances, public spaces over private. Danny Jessup says that this aspect of architecture is also a reflection of human nature, that most people care more...

My imagination is as rich as my bank account is empty.

The world needed a little Evil, so Good had something to compare itself to, but you couldn’t let it think it had the right-of-way on the road and an invitation to dinner.

Hell of a thing to have to experience, hell of a thing to have to see, to be reminded you’re a human being and all it meant to be one.

More likely, they would just cease to exist.””That’s death.””No, it’s different. Death leaves a corps.

Once, there were no predators, no prey. Only harmony. There were no quakes, no storms, everything in balance. In the beginning, time was all at once and forever — no past, present, and future, no...

In memory, she lived and moved and laughed, but all that a photograph could offer was one frozen moment of a life.

Quick now, here, now, always, as if we are in a condition of complete simplicity…

No one can grant you happiness. Happiness is a choice we all have the power to make.

The secret is not to think, we think in words. And what lies beyond the reality we see is a truth that words can’t contain, the secret is to feel.

Her exceptional beauty also helps her to keep her secrets. Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions...

We make so many of our own troubles, from mere mishaps to disasters, by dwelling on the possibility of them until the possible becomes inevitable.

Each book is a mind alive, a life revealed, a world awaiting exploration, but living people are all those things, as well—and more, because their stories haven’t yet been completely told.

When you laugh at yourself, you gain perspective. Then you realize that the mistakes you made, as long as they didn’t hurt anyone but yourself——well, you can forgive yourself for those.

These days, all I ask Fate is that the people she hurls into my life, whether they are evil or good, or morally bipolar, should be amusing to one degree or another.

…I stood there, inexpressibly grateful that my life, for all its terrors, is so filled with moments of grace.

Do as little harm to others as you can; make any sacrifice for your true friends; be responsible for yourself and ask nothing of others; and grab all the fun you can. Don’t give much...

Dogs, lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you’re going to lose a dog, and there’s going to be great anguish, so you live fully...

…an age-old patter that seemed like chaos but was not…

You can con God and get away with it, Granny said, if you do so with charm and wit. If you live your life with imagination and verve, God will play along just to see...

Remember, there are cookies waiting here for you.

In his mind he saw them standing with the tips of their organs pressed together ejaculating into each other’s penis.

To get through life successfully, body and soul must translate each other correctly more often than not.

Most people desperately desire to believe that they are a part of a great mystery, that Creation is a work of grace and glory, not merely the result of random forces colliding. Yet each time...

…because wonder admits to the existence of mystery, and the recognition of mystery in the world allows the possibility of Truth.