Madeleine L'Engle quotes - page 5

One reason nearly half my books are for children is the glorious fact that the minds of children are still open to the living word; in the child, nightside and sunside are not yet separated; fantasy contains truths which cannot be stated in terms of proof. (Madeleine L'Engle)
Love can't be pinned down by a definition, and it certainly can't be proved, anymore than anything else important in life can be proved. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
As the skipping rope hit the pavement, so did the ball. As the rope curved over the head of the jumping child, the child with the ball caught the ball. Down came the ropes. Down came the balls. Over and over again. Up. Down. All in rhythm. All identical. Like the houses. Like the paths. Like the flowers. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather, it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession but participation. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
The medieval mystics say the true image and the true real met once and for all on the cross: once and for all: and yet they still meet daily. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
I cannot believe that God wants punishment to go on interminably any more than does a loving parent. The entire purpose of loving punishment is to teach, and it lasts only as long as is needed for the lesson. And the lesson is always love. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
The uncommon man has done the impossible and there has been that much more light in the world because of it. Children respond to heroes by thinking creatively and sometimes in breaking beyond the bounds of the impossible in their turn, and so becoming heroes themselves. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well, and were it not for my absolute faith in the loving forgiveness of my Lord I could not call on him to come. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, "This is what I believe. Finished." What I believe is alive ... and open to growth. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be. (Madeleine L'Engle)
Believing takes practice. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
I think that all artists, regardless of degree of talent, are a painful, paradoxical combination of certainty and uncertainty, of arrogance and humility, constantly in need of reassurance, and yet with a stubborn streak of faith in their own validity no matter what. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
Our story is never written in isolation. We do not act in a one-man play. We can do nothing that does not affect other people, no matter how loudly we say, "It's my own business. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
God understands. And God understands that part of us which is more than we think we are. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
Stories are able to help us to become more whole, to become Named. And Naming is one of the impulses behind all art; to give a name to the cosmos, we see despite all the chaos. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. (Madeleine L'Engle)
How do we teach a child our own, or those in a classroom to have compassion: to allow people to be different; to understand that like is not equal; to experiment; to laugh; to love; to accept the fact that the most important questions a human being can ask do not have or need answers. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
For the things that are seen are temporal, but things that are unseen are eternal. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
Because to take away a man's freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle
Friends--or lovers--are not always available to each other. Inner turmoils can cause us to be unhearing when someone needs us, to need to receive understanding when we should be giving understanding. View quote
Madeleine L'Engle