Madeleine L'Engle Quotes

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.

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.

Madeleine L'Engle

I do not know everything; still many things I understand.

Madeleine L'Engle

The foolish of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of god is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that may not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath choses the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And bade things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.

Madeleine L'Engle

I love my mother, not as a prisoner of atherosclerosis, but as a person; and I must love her enough to accept her as she is, now, for as long as this dwindling may take.

Madeleine L'Engle

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

Madeleine L'Engle

Suddenly she knew. She knew! Love. That was what she had that IT did not have. She had Mrs. Whatsit's love, and her father's, and mother's, and the real Charles Wallace's love, and the twins', and Aunt Beast's. And she had her love for them. But how could she use it? What was she meant to do?

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.

Madeleine L'Engle

It takes too much energy to be against something unless it's really important.

Madeleine L'Engle

This wasn't the first time that I'd come close to death, but it was the first time I'd been involved in this part of it, this strange, terrible saying goodbye to someone you've loved.

Madeleine L'Engle

It seemed to travel with her, to sweep her aloft in the power of song, so that she was moving in glory among the stars, and for a moment she, too, felt that the words Darkness and Light had no meaning, and only this melody was real.

Madeleine L'Engle

A great piece of literature does not try to coerce you to believe it or agree with it. A great piece of literature simply is. It is a vehicle of truth, but it is not a blueprint, and we tend to confuse the two.

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.

Madeleine L'Engle

[Growing up] is a process that never ends. It isn't a point you attain so you can say, Hooray, I'm grown up. Some people never grow up. And nobody ever finishes growing. Or shouldn't. If you stop you might as well quit. What I have to tell you is that it never gets any easier. It goes right on being rough forever. But nothing that's easy is worth anything. You ought to have learned that by now. What happens as you keep on growing is that all of a sudden you realize that it's more exciting and beautiful than scary and awful.

Madeleine L'Engle

A book, too, can be a star 'explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly.

Madeleine L'Engle

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

People are more than just the way they look.

Madeleine L'Engle

The earth will never be the same againRock, water, tree, iron, share this greifAs distant stars participate in the pain.A candle snuffed, a falling star or leaf,A dolphin death, O this particular lossA Heaven-mourned; for if no angel criedIf this small one was tossed away as dross,The very galaxies would have lied.How shall we sing our love's song nowIn this strange land where all are born to die?Each tree and leaf and star show howThe universe is part of this one cry,Every life is noted and is cherished,and nothing loved is ever lost or perished.

Madeleine L'Engle

That's the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they've been all along.

Madeleine L'Engle

Schooling, instead of encouraging the asking of questions, too often discourages it.

Madeleine L'Engle