The concept of conservation is a far truer sign of civilization than that spoilation of a continent which we once confused with progress.

- Peter Matthiessen

Zen is really just a reminder to stay alive and to be awake. We tend to daydream all the time, speculating about the future and dwelling on the past.…

- Peter Matthiessen

The great stillness in these landscapes that once made me restless seeps into me day by day, and with it the unreasonable feeling that I have found w…

- Peter Matthiessen

Simultaneously I am myself, the child I was, the old man I will be.

- Peter Matthiessen

The purpose of our life is to help others through it.

- Peter Matthiessen

The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at extraordinary times, to be of the present, nothing-but-in-the…

- Peter Matthiessen

If we were doomed to live forever, we would scarcely be aware of the beauty around us.

- Peter Matthiessen

In this very breath that we take now lies the secret that all great teachers try to tell us.

- Peter Matthiessen

The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no "mea…

- Peter Matthiessen