33 Quotes by Coleman Barks

I think my life is tremendously interesting, and surely, other people do too.

Love is the religion and the universe is the book.

There’s some sort of exchange that goes on between human beings that is one of the highest things we do.

Solitude is a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.

Everything is conversation.

The religions of the world are luminous in their individuality, and they have valuable social and soulmaking functions. Surely someday we will quit killing each other over their different strategies.

A hand shifts our birdcages around. Some are brought closer. Some move apart. Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious of who draws you and who not.

Water the fruit trees, and don’t water the thorns. Be generous to what nurtures the spirit and God’s luminous reason-light. Don’t honor what causes dysentry and knotted up tumors.

Nothing can save us. All this sweetness dies and rots.