Quotes By Author: Terry Tempest Williams

“This is what I have learned in these short weeks in the refuge:You cannot afford to make careless mistakes, like meditating in the presence of wolves, or topping your boots in the river, or losing a glove, or not securing your tent down properly. Death is a daily occurrence in the wild, not noticed, not respected, not mourned. In the Arctic, I’ve learned that ego is as useless as money. Choose one’s travel companions well. Physical strength and prudence are necessary. Imagination and ingenuity are our finest traits.Expect anything.You can change your mind like the weather.Patience is more powerful than anger. Humor is attractive than fear.Pay attention. Listen. We are most alive when we are discovering.Humility is the capacity to see.We are meant to live simply.We are meant to live joyfully.Life continues with and without us.Beauty is another word for God.”

“I accept the Organic Trinity of Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal with as much authority as I accept the Holy Trinity. Both are sacred.”

“How do we remain faithful to our own spiritual imagination and not betray what we know in our own bodies? The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy.”

“There is no one true church, no one chosen people.”

“Faith is not about finding meaning in the world, there may be no such thing — faith is the belief in our capacity to create meaningful lives.”

“This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek.”