Quotes by Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard

Explore a curated collection of 21 quotes by Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard. Discover timeless wisdom, insightful thoughts, and memorable words that have inspired readers around the world. Browse through the gallery below and click on any quote to read more.

It is related that Sakyamuni [the historical Buddha] once dismissed as of small consequence a feat of levitation on the — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do no — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
Amazingly, we take for granted that instinct for survival, fear of death, must separate us from the happiness of pure an — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
In his first summers, forsaking all his toys, my son would stand rapt for nearly an hour in his sandbox in the orchard, — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
My foot slips on a narrow ledge; in that split second, as needles of fear pierce heart and temples, eternity intersects — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
In the book of Job, the Lord demands, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?”“I was there!”-surely t — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
I grow into these mountains like a moss. I am bewitched. The blinding snow peaks and the clarion air, the sound of earth — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
Left alone, I am overtaken by the northern void-no wind, no cloud, no track, no bird, only the crystal crescents between — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
The central feature of the practice of meditation and hard work known as Zen is that, as Matthiessen says, it “has no pa — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
I sit in meditation…and soon all sounds, and all one sees and feels, take on imminence, an immanence, as if the Universe — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
After midday, the rain eased, and the Land Rover rode into Pokhara on a shaft of storm light. Next day there was humid s — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
The light irradiates white peaks of Annapurna marching down the sky, in the great rampart that spreads east and west for — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
It is as if I have entered what the Tibetans call the Bardo-literally, between-two-existences- a dreamlike hallucination — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
And it is a profound consolation, perhaps the only one, to this haunted animal that wastes most of a long and ghostly li — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
Transfixed by the bright gaze of a lizard, I become calm. This stone on which the lizard lies was under the sea when liz — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at unextraordinary times, to be of — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
The mystical perception (which is only “mystical” if reality is limited to what can be measured by the intellect and sen — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
Today most scientists would agree with the ancient Hindus that nothing exists or is destroyed, things merely change shap — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
The sun is roaring, it fills to bursting each crystal of snow. I flush with feeling, moved beyond my comprehension, and — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
A far cicada rings high and clear over the river’s heavy wash. Morning glory, a lone dandelion, cassia, orchids. So far — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard