Only when one is connected to one's own core is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude. Anne Morrow Lindbergh More Quotes by Anne Morrow Lindbergh More Quotes From Anne Morrow Lindbergh People "died" all the time. . . . Parts of them died when they made the wrong kinds of decisions-decisions against life. Sometimes they died bit by bit until finally they were just living corpses walking around. If you were perceptive you could see it in their eyes; the fire had gone out. . . you always knew when you made a decision against life. The door clicked and you were safe inside-safe and dead. Anne Morrow Lindbergh eye fire doors We walk up the beach under the stars. And when we are tired of walking, we lie flat on the sand under a bowl of stars. We feel stretched, expanded to take in their compass. They pour into us until we are filled with stars, up to the brim. Anne Morrow Lindbergh stars beach lying I am very fond of the oyster shell. It is humble and awkward and ugly. It is slate-colored and unsymmetrical. Its form is not primarily beautiful but functional. I make fun of its knobbiness. Sometimes I resent its burdens and excrescences. But its tireless adaptability and tenacity draw my astonished admiration and sometimes even my tears. And it is comfortable in its familiarity, its homeliness, like old garden gloves when have molded themselves perfectly to the shape of the hand. I do not like to put it down. I will not want to leave it. Anne Morrow Lindbergh humble fun beautiful Can one make the future a substitute for the present? And what guarantee have we that the future will be any better if we neglect the present? Anne Morrow Lindbergh substitutes neglect guarantees The loneliness you get by the sea is personal and alive. It doesn't subdue you and make you feel abject. It's stimulating loneliness. Anne Morrow Lindbergh lonely loneliness sea People talk about love as if it were something you could give, like an armful of flowers. Anne Morrow Lindbergh flower love people Total freedom is never what one imagines and, in fact, hardly exists. It comes as a shock in life to learn that we usually only exchange one set of restrictions for another. The second set, however, is self-chosen, and therefore easier to accept. Anne Morrow Lindbergh learning self life There is no harvest for the heart alone. The seed of love must be eternally re-sown. Anne Morrow Lindbergh harvest heart love Love is a force. . . . It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product. It is a power, like money, or steam or electricity. It is valueless unless you can give something else by means of it. Anne Morrow Lindbergh love giving mean Too many people, too many demands, too much to do; competent, busy, hurrying people - It just isn't living at all. Anne Morrow Lindbergh demand too-much people For sleep, one needs endless depths of blackness to sink into; daylight is too shallow, it will not cover one. Anne Morrow Lindbergh depth sleep needs Only with winter-patience can we bring the deep-desired, long-awaited Spring. Anne Morrow Lindbergh winter spring long Men kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces. Anne Morrow Lindbergh friendship football funny I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. Anne Morrow Lindbergh eye purity want Love is a force.... It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product; it produces. Anne Morrow Lindbergh results causes love-is In the sheltered simplicity of the first days after a baby is born, one sees again the magical closed circle, the miraculous sense of two people existing only for each other. Anne Morrow Lindbergh mom mother baby Marriage is tough, because it is woven of all these various elements, the weak and the strong. "In love-ness" is fragile for it is woven only with the gossamer threads of beauty. It seems to me absurd to talk about "happy" and "unhappy" marriages. Anne Morrow Lindbergh woven strong unhappy Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found. Anne Morrow Lindbergh change leadership inspirational We tend not to choose the unknown, which might be a shock or a disappointment or simply a little difficult to cope with. An yet it is the unknown with all its disappointments and surprises that is the most enriching. Anne Morrow Lindbergh disappointment littles happiness If one talks to more than four people, it is an audience; and one cannot really think or exchange thoughts with an audience. Anne Morrow Lindbergh four people thinking
