When we were children we were errant enough to wish to be birds for the day but there's nothing easier to lose than playfulness.

The simple act of opening a bottle of wine has brought more happiness to the human race than all the collective governments in the history of earth

Barring love I'll take my life in large doses alone--rivers, forests, fish, grouse, mountains. Dogs.

The wilderness does not make you forget your normal life so much as it removes the distractions for proper remembering.

The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense.

Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends.

In a life properly lived, you're a river.

Beware, O wanderer, the road is walking too.

Death steals everything except our stories.

Fishing makes us less the hostages to the horrors of making a living.

I would rather give full vent to all human loves and disappointments, and take a chance on being corny, than die a smartass.

True riches belong to those who shun false ones.

In my experience all women deserve someone better.

Only unfulfilled love can be romantic

June is the time for being in the world in new ways, for throwing off the cold and dark spots of life.

You got a million drug laws now because the bosses figured there was more money in putting people in jail than taxing something anyone can grow on a window sill.

I make no distinction between the mind and the spirit, and therefore no distinction between the process of achieving spiritual growth and achieving mental growth. They are one and the same.

To build up a future, you have to know the past.

The whole quilt is much more important than any single square.

Painting is the act of discovery and you're constantly enlarging your horizon or finding yourself every time you paint.

I know the next best thing is often the very best.