Whole World is a Book

Let us but intend to see and hear, and then the whole world becomes a book of wisdom and instruction to us. All that is regular in the order of nature, all that is accidental in the course of things, all the mistakes and disappointments that happen to ourselves, all the miseries and errors that we see in other people, become so many plain lessons of advice to us, teaching us with as much assurance as an angel from Heaven that we can no ways raise ourselves to any true happiness but by turning all our thoughts, our wishes, and endeavours after the happiness of another life.

William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (London: J.M. Dent, 1951; 1728), p. 148.