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Madeleine LEngle Quotes - Page 4

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The concentration of a small child at play is analogous to the concentration of the artist of any discipline. In real play, which is real concentration, the child is not only outside time, he is outside himself.

The concentration of a small child at play is analogous to the concentration of the artist of any discipline. In real play, which is real concentration, the child is not only outside time, he is outside himself.

Madeleine L'Engle
Children, Real, Artist
Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “A Circle of Quiet”, p.8, Open Road Media

As far as I'm concerned, there is only one absolute: God is love.

Madeleine L'Engle
God Is Love, Concerned, Absolutes

If you're going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can't pick and choose who's going to be the sparrow. It's everybody.

Madeleine L'Engle
Fall, Compassion, Care

Truth is eternal. Knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse them.

Madeleine L'Engle
Knowledge, Truth Is, Eternal
Madeleine L'Engle (2007). “An Acceptable Time”, p.86, Macmillan

A lot of the shadow self is the home of poetry, story, prayer. My deepest understandings are often released from the part of me of which I am least aware most of the time.

Madeleine L'Engle
Prayer, Home, Self

Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind.

Madeleine L'Engle
Stars, Wind, Listening
Madeleine L’Engle (2014). “A Wrinklein Time Quintet”, p.387, Obelix Books

You cannot take credit for your talents. It is what you do with them that counts.

Madeleine L'Engle
Credit, Talent

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.

Madeleine L'Engle
Sacred, Messages, Secular
Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art”, p.45, Convergent Books

The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.

Madeleine L'Engle
Pain, Paradox, Unending
Twitter post from Mar 17, 2011

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.

Madeleine L'Engle
Children, Self, Becoming
Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “A Circle of Quiet”, p.22, Open Road Media

God understands. And God understands that part of us which is more than we think we are.

Madeleine L'Engle
Thinking
"Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art".

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
Children, Book, Mind
Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “The Irrational Season”, p.138, Open Road Media

When I am grappling with ideas which are radical enough to upset grown-ups, then I am likely to put these ideas into a story which will be marketed for children, because children understand what their parents have rejected and forgotten.

Madeleine L'Engle
Children, Ideas, Parent
Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art”, p.91, Convergent Books

On the other side of pain, there is still love.

Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Pain, Deep Thought

When I have something to say that I think will be too difficult for adults, I write it in a book for children. Children are excited by new ideas; they have not yet closed the doors and windows of their imaginations. Provided the story is good... nothing is too difficult for children.

Madeleine L'Engle
Children, Book, Writing

I believe that good questions are more important than answers, and the best children's books ask questions, and make the readers ask questions. And every new question is going to disturb someone's universe.

Madeleine L'Engle
Children, Believe, Book
Madeleine L'Engle (2012). “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?”, p.987, Macmillan

Stories are like children. They grow in their own way.

Madeleine L'Engle
Children, Stories, Way
Madeleine L’Engle (2014). “A Wrinklein Time Quintet”, p.223, Obelix Books

Love of music, of sunsets and sea; a liking for the same kind of people; political opinions that are not radically divergent; a similar stance as we look at the stars and think of the marvelous strangeness of the universe - these are what build a marriage. And it is never to be taken for granted.

Madeleine L'Engle
Stars, Taken, Sunset
Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage”, p.51, Open Road Media

There is no way that you can read the entire Bible seriously and take every word literally. Contradictions start in the first chapter of Genesis. There are two Creation stories, two stories of the making of Adam and Eve. And that is all right. The Bible is still true.

Madeleine L'Engle
Two, Stories, Way

When we can play with the unself-conscious concentration of a child, this is: art: prayer: love.

Madeleine L'Engle
Art, Prayer, Children
Twitter post from Nov 19, 2010

There is in God, some say, a deep but dazzling darkness.

Madeleine L'Engle
Darkness, Dazzling
Madeleine L'Engle (2008). “A Ring of Endless Light: The Austin Family Chronicles”, p.57, Macmillan

All will be redeemed in God's fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ . All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones.

Madeleine L'Engle
Lost Ones, Sheep, Grace
Madeleine L'Engle (1986). “A Stone for a Pillow”, Shaw

Goodness has never been a guarantee of safety.

Madeleine L'Engle
Safety, Guarantees, Goodness
Twitter post from Jan 06, 2012

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
Integrity, Humility, Quality
Twitter post from Nov 06, 2016

We live by revelations, as Christians, as artists, which means we must be careful never to get set into rigid molds. The minute we begin to think we know all the answers, we forget all the questions and we become like the pharisee who listed all his considerable virtues, and thanked God that he was not like other men.

Madeleine L'Engle
Christian, Mean, Artist

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