Paul Bowles Quotes

Silence is refreshment for the soul.

Like silence after noise, or cool, clear water on a hot, stuffy day, Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy. Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness.

Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy.

It was as though all my hostilities, anxieties, and conflicts were in one ball that was flying away into space, farther from me all the time, leaving me content with myself.

Painting calmed the chaos that shook my soul.

Peace of mind for five minutes, that's what I crave.

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

Sometimes it's nice just being in your own room and having a quiet night and relaxing and getting ready for the game.

Rain is good for me. I feel like I achieve clarity actually when it rains. The longer I have to sit and wait, the clearer my game becomes to me.

Once in a while, the universe lets you be free alone and in peace.

When I get by the ocean, that's the only moment that I get that silence and that connection, not with the ocean, but with myself.

To become mindfully aware of our surroundings is to bring our thinking back to our present moment reality and to the possibility of some semblance of serenity in the face of circumstances outside our ability to control.

Truth. It feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that's been burning me up all my life. Truth, I say inside my head again, just for that feeling.

I lay in that tub on the seventeenth floor of this hotel for-women-only, high up over the jazz and push of New York, for near unto an hour, and I felt myself growing pure again. I don't believe in baptism or the waters of Jordan or anything like that, but I guess I feel about a hot bath the way those religious people feel about holy water.

Surrender is a journey from the outer turmoil to the inner peace.

At the end of the day, give up your worries and give thanks for the journey.

But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

There are few times that I feel more at peace, more in tune, more Zen, if you will, than when I force myself to unplug.

Either worrying drives out prayer, or prayer drives out worrying.

All the heat and fear had purged itself. I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung suspended a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air.

I've found that worry and irritation vanish into thin air the moment I open my mind to the many blessings I possess.

Only when you are relaxed can you see what's going on.

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

Sometimes we are clarified and calmed healthily, as we never were before in our lives, not by an opiate, but by some unconscious obedience to the all-just laws, so that we become like a still lake of purest crystal and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves. . . .

Be patient. Relax and trust. Let go. Then, let go some more.