I never thought that I would support myself with art - everyone in the Group of Seven had day jobs. I became a geography teacher so that I could get free field trips into the wilderness to paint.

If you find yourself worrying, go outside, take three breaths, address a tree and quietly say, 'Thank you.' If you can't find a tree, a dandelion will do... Nature is magic.

To me the most important thing in a piece of art is the thought. Technique is totally secondary.

I've never thought sitting around worrying helps anything, except to help shorten your life.

I got serious about painting at 12, when most people give up.

It doesn't take more skill to paint hundreds of strokes rather than one right stroke but it takes more patience.

If I ever have a conflict between art and nature, I let art win.

The most important question facing the planet is: Is it worth it?

Nature is not a free lunch, but we treat it as a free lunch.

In our instant pudding world, everything is sweet, smooth, very convenient and fast. There are lots of assorted flavors, but they're all artificial.

Aesthetic pleasure is not to be taken lightly; it's very important for the spirit and therefore the health.

You have to salvage what you can, even if you're the one who buried it in the first place.

In this age of 'whatever, ' Americans are becoming slaves to the new tyranny of nonchalance. " James Morris

It is possible to refine awareness itself so much that the emptiness of things, and the role mental construction plays, becomes a directly apprehended reality.

As Spinoza or someone very much like him once said . . .

Even cats grow lonely and anxious.

If you wish to educate a child who has gone wrong, then you must, above all, keep your attention fixed on the intersection of two charmed circles.

I'm getting housemaid's knee kneeling here gulping beauty.

Everything we look at and choose is some way of expressing how we want to be perceived.

The mature mind seeks to follow through.

If a cat sits on a hot stove once, it will never sit on a cold one either.