Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving. Madeleine L'Engle More Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle More Quotes From Madeleine L'Engle The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness. Madeleine L'Engle effortdisciplinewriting It is the ability to choose which makes us human. Madeleine L'Engle ability-to-chooseabilitychoices You have to write the book that wants to be written. Madeleine L'Engle writingbookchildren To grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle growing-upmaturityalive We tend to think things are new because we've just discovered them. Madeleine L'Engle discoverythinking When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity. Madeleine L'Engle creativityselffirsts Anything that's natural can't be sinful-it may be inconvenient, but it's not sinful. Madeleine L'Engle sinnaturalmay Sometimes when we have to speak suddenly we come closer to the truth than when we have time to think. Madeleine L'Engle speaksometimesthinking Integrity, like humility, is a quality which vanishes the moment we are conscious of it in ourselves. We see it only in others. Madeleine L'Engle qualityhumilityintegrity It strikes me as somewhat odd that the people who use God's name most frequently, both in life and in literature, usually don't believe in him. Madeleine L'Engle godnamesbelieve It is an extraordinary and beautiful thing that God, in creation. . . works with the beauty of matter; the reality of things; the discoveries of the senses, all five of them; so that we, in turn, may hear the grass growing; see a face springing to life in love and laughter. . . The offerings of creation. . . our glimpses of truth. Madeleine L'Engle laughterbeautifulreality I would like to travel light on this journey of life, to get rid of the encumbrances I acquire each day. . . . The most difficult thing to let go is my self, that self which, coddled and cozened, becomes smaller as it becomes heavier. I don't understand how and why I come to be only as I lose myself, but I know from long experience that this is so. Madeleine L'Engle lightjourneyletting-go We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledging that they cannot take us all the way. Madeleine L'Engle usemindway If we all knew each morning that there was going to be another morning, and on and on and on, we's tend not to notice the sunrise, or hear the birds, or the waves rolling into the shore. We'd tend not to treasure our time with the people we love. Simply the awareness that our mortal lives had a beginning and will have an end enhances the quality of our living. Perhaps it's even more intense when we know that the termination of the body is near, but it shouldn't be. Madeleine L'Engle morningbirdpeople I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, "Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me." Madeleine L'Engle here-i-ambelieveart I am encouraged as I look at some of those who have listened to their "different drum": Einstein was hopeless at school math and commented wryly on his inadequacy in human relations. Winston Churchill was an abysmal failure in his early school years. Byron, that revolutionary student, had to compensate for a club foot; Demosthenes for a stutter; and Homer was blind. Socrates couldn't manage his wife, and infuriated his countrymen. And what about Jesus, if we need an ultimate example of failure with one's peers? Or an ultimate example of love? Madeleine L'Engle loveschooljesus The naked intellect is an extraordinarily inaccurate instrument. Madeleine L'Engle instrumentsnakedmind The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder. Madeleine L'Engle understandingbelievelying I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow. Madeleine L'Engle shadowjourneychildren Now I am setting out into the unknown. It will take me a long while to work through the grief. There are no shortcuts; it has to be gone through. Madeleine L'Engle emotionalgrieflong
