I remembered what Thoreau had written in his journal about thinking nothing of walking eight miles to greet a tree.

Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.

Knowing another is endless,' Shepherd had written; 'The thing to be known grows with the knowing.

We are fallen mostly into pieces but the wild returns us to ourselves

The compact between writing and walking is almost as old as literature -- a walk is only a step away from a story, and every path tells.

All travelers to wild places will have felt some version of this, a brief blazing perception of the world's disinterest. In small measures it exhilarates. But in full form it annihilates.

The word "landmark" is from the old English "landmearc", meaning 'an object in the landscape which, by its conspicuousness, serves as a guide in the direction of one's course.

What we bloodlessy call 'place' is to young children a wild compound of dream, spell and substance: place is somewhere they are always 'in', never 'on'.

Books, like landscapes, leave their marks in us. (...) Certain books, though, like certain landscapes, stay with us even when we left them, changing not just our weathers but our climates.

a walk is only a step away from a story, and every path tells.

For pilgrims walking...every footfall is doubled, landing at once on the actual road and also on the path of faith.

I miss the fears of the past few weeks, rendered small by my fears now.

No, I am not all right, I want to say. Have you been to my house? Have you seen how empty it is?

Wanderers, Dublin's oldest rugby club, has been described more than once as the club of the Church and the Army: the wags added "...unfortunately the wrong Church and the wrong Army."

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Hong Kong is the bellwether. If the Chinese stick to their agreement to let Hong Kong go its own path, then China will also go that way. If they don't, that is a very bad sign. I'm optimistic.

Sometimes the child in one behaves a certain way and the rest of oneself follows behind, slowly shaking its head.

Those who pray from the heart do not think about the prayer they are saying, but about the God to whom they pray.

A steak needs fat to taste great.

Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls.

Radiate an energy of serenity and peace so that you have an uplifting effect on those you come into contact with.