I want to have a lasting experience with God. Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I loose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears.

I want to be with God all the time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures.

I guess what I want to learn is how to leave in this world and enjoy its delights, but also elevate myself to God.

"I only know how little I know"

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

The Real Work
There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do.  If you forget everything else and not this, there's nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else, and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life.
It's as if a king has sent you to some country to do a task, and you perform a hundred other services, but not the one he sent you to do.  So human beings come to this world to do particular work.  That work is the purpose, and each is specific to the person.  If you don't do it, it's as though a priceless Indian sword were used to slice rotten meat.  It's a golden bowl being used to cook turnips, when one filing from the bowl could buy a hundred suitable pots.  It's a knife of the finest tempering nailed into a wall to hang things on.
You say, "But look, I'm using the dagger.  It's not lying idle."
Do you hear how ludicrous that sounds?  For a penny, an iron nail could be bought to serve the purpose.  You say, "But I spend my energies on lofty enterprises.  I study jurisprudence and philosophy and logic and astronomy and medicine and all the rest."  But consider why you do those things.  They are all branches of yourself.
Remember the deep root of your being, the presence of your lord.  Give your life to the one who already owns your breath and your moments.  If you don't, you will be exactly like the man who takes a precious dagger and hammers it into his kitchen wall for a peg to hold his dipper gourd.  You'll be wasting valuable keenness and foolishly ignoring your dignity and your purpose.

When all your desires are distilled
You will cast just two votes:

To love more,
And be happy.

...suffering occurs when we want other people to love us in the way we imagine we want to be loved, and not in the way that love should manifest itself - free and untrammeled, guiding us with its force and driving us on.

When we renounce our dreams, we find peace and enjoy a brief period of tranquillity, but the dead dreams begin to rot inside us and to infect the whole atmosphere in which we live. What we hoped to avoid in the Fight -disappointment and defeat- become the sole legacy of our cowardice.

Please keep in mind the distinction between healing and treatment: treatment originates from outside, whereas healing comes from within.

"People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened."