“I cannot come nearer to God and HeavenThan I live to Walden even.I am its stony shore,And the breeze that passes o'er;In the hollow of my handAre its water and its sand,And its deepest resortLies high in my thought.”

“I live my own life and nurse my own wounds. It's not the best way to live. But it's the way I am.”

“A fish cannot drown in water,A bird does not fall in air.In the fire of creation,God doesn't vanish:The fire brightens.Each creature God mademust live in its own true nature;How could I resist my nature,That lives for oneness with God?”

“I am forever walking upon these shores,Betwixt the sand and the foam,The high tide will erase my foot prints,And the wind will blow away the foam,But the sea and the shore will remain forever.”

“I am in love with this world... I have tilled its soil, I have gathered its harvest, I have waited upon its seasons, and always have I reaped what I have sown. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.”

“When I was a boy, playing at the beach, I remember a game I loved, which was an omen of my future life. I would dig a channel with high sides in the sand for the sea to fill. But when the water flooded the path I created for it with such violence that it destroyed everything in its way: my castles made of pebbles, my dikes of sand. It swept away everything, destroying it all, then disappeared, leaving me with a heavy heart, yet not daring to ask for pity, since the sea had only responded to my call. It's the same with love. You call out for it, you plan its course. The wave crashes into your heart, but it's so different from how you imagined it, so bitter and icy.”