Charles de Lint Quotes

I don't ask for the meaning of the song of a bird or the rising of the sun on a misty morning. There they are, and they are beautiful.

I don't want to go anywhere; I don't want to leave anybody behind. Happiness is right here, right now, in this world, in this room. I am happiest wherever it is that I am.

I have learned over a period of time to be almost unconsciously grateful--as a child is--for a sunny day, blue water, flowers in a vase, a tree turning red. I have learned to be glad at dawn and when the sky is dark. Only children and a few spiritually evolved people are born to feel gratitude as naturally as they breathe, without even thinking. Most of us come to it step by painful step, to discover that gratitude is a form of acceptance.

In this there is no judgment and no blame, for we seek not to perfect the world but to perfect our love for what is on this earth.

Most of the time I am sunk in thought, but at some point on each walk there comes a moment when I look up and notice, with a kind of first-time astonishment, the amazing complex delicacy of the words, the casual ease with which elemental things come together to form a composition that is—whatever the season, wherever I put my besotted gaze—perfect.

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.

Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.

The joy sometimes is in the simple beauty.

Tea ceremony is a way of worshipping the beautiful and the simple. All one's efforts are concentrated on trying to achieve perfection through the imperfect gestures of daily life. Its beauty consists in the respect with which it is performed. If a mere cup of tea can bring us closer to God, we should watch out for all the other dozens of opportunities that each ordinary day offers us.

There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.

You look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is.

I love to be alone with life. I love to study simple things: the light as it filters in a window; the music of a room full of people chatting; a horizon.

It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate, this isn't a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.

Everything is beautiful in its own way.

You have to be willing to get happy about nothing.

Every day is perfect because there's no other day! As a friend of mine said, "Ride the horse in the direction it's going." When you do that, you realize that every moment, every breath, every sound, every encounter is a gift. You bloody well better enjoy it.

The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.

The better we are at accepting the limits of our world, the more easily we can embrace what we have.

If we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us.

There is just this moment. We are not trying to improve or to get anywhere else.

You don't ask what a dance means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what the world means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what you mean. You enjoy it.

How do you like what you have. This is a question that anybody can ask anybody. Ask it.

After a while, you have to be at peace with the fact that you simple are

Focus Not on Having Less or Having More, But on Wanting What You Have.