Karl Marlantes Quotes

The thing that brings people to wail at a wall, or face Mecca, or to go to church, is a search for that feeling of purity.

Every day is a Sabbath to me. All pure water is holy water, and this earth is a celestial abode.

Either all days are holy or none are.

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.

The temple is holy because it is not for sale.

I have always considered myself to be spiritual in a way that has less to do with religion and more with an awareness that you have, and the consciousness you have of being alive and the consciousness that you will be dead.

Everywhere I look, I see something holy.

If everything that ever lived is dead, and everything alive is gonna die...where does the sacred part come in?

You can find the sacred in the most ordinary of things.

What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color.

Everything was God, holy; as God is total, so the driftwood branch was holy. This must be the stuff religion is made of.

. . . it seemed to me that where others had prayed before to their God, in their joy or in their agony, was of itself a sacred place.

I believe in holiness and sacredness in other people. It doesn't mean that the clouds part and I see God. That's a juvenile way of thinking about it.

I have been here before as a spirit - this is just my physical body, it is just an overcoat. And at death, you will take the overcoat off.

Silently, God opens his golden eyes over the place of skulls.

I am a soul. I know well that what I shall render up to the grave is not myself. That which is myself will go elsewhere. Earth, thou art not my abyss!

No man can pass into eternity, for he is already in it.

For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes.

I will burn, but this is a mere event. We shall continue our discussion in eternity.

Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.

The fear of death comes from limited awareness.

Alas, I think I am becoming a god.

We unavoidably stand in so many unholy places and are subjected to so much that is vulgar, profane, and destructive of the Spirit of the Lord that I encourage our Saints all over the world, wherever possible, to strive to stand more often in holy places.

Everyone focuses on the earthly state, but how cool might death be? I believe in spiritual rebirth, and I can't wait to experience that.