“There is something in every creature born that transcends its time and place of birth,”

“Door of passage to the other side, the soul frees itself in stride.”

“Reading poetry is like undressing before a bath. You don’t undress out of fear that your clothes will become wet. You undress because you want the water to touch you. You want to completely immerse yourself in the feeling of the water and to emerge anew.”

“People will find transformation and transcendence in a McDonald’s hash brown if it’s all they’ve got.”

“How does the ordinary person come to the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. (92)”

“Once to swim I sought the sea-side,There to sport among the billows;With the stone of many colorsSank poor Aino to the bottomOf the deep and boundless blue-sea,Like a pretty son-bird, perished.Never come a-fishing, father,To the borders of these waters,Never during all thy life-time,As thou lovest daughter Aino.Mother dear, I sought the sea-side,There to sport among the billows;With the stone of many colors,Sank poor Aino to the bottomOf the deep and boundless blue-sea,Like a pretty song-bird perished.Never mix thy bread, dear mother,With the blue-sea’s foam and waters,Never during all thy life-time,As thou lovest daughter Aino.Brother dear, I sought the sea-side,There to sport among the billows;With the stone of many colorsSank poor Aino to the bottomOf the deep and boundless blue-sea,Like a pretty song-bird perished.Never bring thy prancing war-horse,Never bring thy royal racer,Never bring thy steeds to water,To the borders of the blue-sea,Never during all thy life-time,As thou lovest sister Aino.Sister dear, I sought the sea-side,There to sport among the billows;With the stone of many colorsSank poor Aino to the bottomOf the deep and boundless blue-sea,Like a pretty song-bird perished.Never come to lave thine eyelidsIn this rolling wave and sea-foam,Never during all thy life-time,As thou lovest sister Aino.All the waters in the blue-seaShall be blood of Aino’s body;All the fish that swim these watersShall be Aino’s flesh forever;All the willows on the sea-sideShall be Aino’s ribs hereafter;All the sea-grass on the marginWill have grown from Aino’s tresses.”

“The meditative mind sees disagreeable or agreeable things with equanimity, patience, and good-will. Transcendent knowledge is seeing reality in utter simplicity. (146)”

“Shine your soul with the same egoless humility as the rainbow and no matter where you go in this world or the next, love will find you, attend you, and bless you.”

“Love is a powerful thing. It transcends time and place. If you’re looking for immortality, love long and love well. The rest will take care of itself.”

“I enjoy melancholic music and art. They take me to places I don’t normally get to go.”

“Only you can take inner freedom away from yourself, or give it to yourself. Nobody else can.”

“he woman Caeiro fell in love with. I have no idea who she was, and I intend to never find out, not even out of curiosity. There are things of which the soul refuses to lose its ignorance.I’m perfectly aware no one’s obliged to reciprocate love, and great poets have nothing to do with being great lovers. But there’s a transcendent spite…Let her remain anonymous even to God!”

“Don’t call anyone a devil, because within you, you can experience hell and the devil, and the devil is nothing, but you!”

“A fish cannot drown in water,A bird does not fall in air.In the fire of creation,God doesn’t vanish:The fire brightens.Each creature God mademust live in its own true nature;How could I resist my nature,That lives for oneness with God?”