Pastoral Resources

I don't theorize too much. I sort of let the experience sink in, and I have to discover what the character is by doing it, and having those thoughts that she's thinking.

If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart.

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.

All thoughts, all passions, all delights Whatever stirs this mortal frame All are but ministers of Love And feed His sacred flame.

It is your work to clear away the mass of encumbering material of thoughts, so that you may bring into plain view the precious thing at the center of the mass.

If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition.

The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.

You are a woman: you must never speak what you think; your words must contradict your thoughts, but your actions may contradict your words.

A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends.

A man's real life is that accorded to him in the thoughts of other men by reason of respect or natural love.

Reason enables us to get around in the world of ideas, but cannot prescribe our thoughts.

An example is often a deceptive mirror, and the order of destiny, so troubling to our thoughts, is not always found written in things past.

Our thoughts are unseen hands shaping the people we meet. Whatever we truly think them to be, that's what they'll become for us.

Reputation is favorable notoriety as distinguished from fame, which is permanent approval of great deeds and noble thoughts by the best intelligence of mankind.

During my solitude, conflicting thoughts increased; but much exercise of soul had the effect of causing the scriptures to gain complete ascendancy over me.

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

Study the best and highest things that are; but of yourself humble thoughts retain.

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

We've got our own daylight to get bad thoughts away, and we talk with that light - our star in our heart. We take away what's unimportant.

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.