Br. David Stendl-Rast

A hermit must have a deep experience of communion with humanity. Without this, you cannot be a hermit, because you would only be lonely. You would not be really solitary. To be alone and cut off from others would make you very unhappy, but to be alone, and to be deeply united with others, in deep communion, that is a possibility for which many people long. That is what I call solitude—over and against loneliness.

Each one of us is called to become the Great Song that comes out of the Silence. 

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy—because we will always want to have something else or something more.

The more alert we become to the blessings that flow into us from everything we touch, the more our own touch will bring blessing.

Beauty transforms the beholder.