Madeleine L'engle Quotes

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

In the final exam in the Chaucer course we were asked why he used certain verbal devices, certain adjectives, why he had certain characters behave in certain ways. And I wrote, 'I don't think Chaucer had any idea why he did any of these things. That isn't the way people write.'I believe this as strongly now as I did then. Most of what is best in writing isn't done deliberately.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Grandfather looked away from me and out to sea, and when he spoke, it was as though he spoke to himself. “The obligations of normal human kindness – chesed, as the Hebrew has it – that we all owe. But there’s a kind of vanity in thinking you can nurse the world. There’s a kind of vanity in goodness.”I could hardly believe my ears. “But aren’t we supposed to be good?”“I’m not sure.” Grandfather’s voice was heavy. “I do know that we’re not good, and there’s a lot of truth to the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Of course. I am well aware that the streets of New York are not safe, but then there is no longer any place in the world which is safe. One cannot live in perpetual fear, one has to be as prudent as possible, and get on with life. - A Severed Wasp

~ Madeleine L'engle

My dear, I'm seldom sure of anything. Life at best is a precarious business...

~ Madeleine L'engle

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

We're not peculiar.Oh, yes, you are. Don't you realize that in my world my parents are peculiar because they'd never been divorced? Basically because it would have been too much trouble. But you live in a world where not only are your parents not divorced, they appear to love each other

~ Madeleine L'engle

One night after dinner a group of us were talking about the supernatural, and one of our dinner guests said that when the electric light was invented, people began to lose the dimension of the supernatural. In the days before we could touch a switch and flood every section of the room with light, there were always shadows in the corner, shadows which moved with candlelight, with firelight; and these shadows were an outward and visible sign that things are not always what they seem; there are things which are not visible to the mortal human being; there are things beyond our ken.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Don't try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Your intuition and your intellect should be working together… making love. That’s how it works best.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Lords of blue and Lords of gold,Lords of wind and waters wild,Lords of time that's growing old,When will come the season mild?When will come blue Madoc's child?

~ Madeleine L'engle

We all tend to make zealous judgement, and thereby close ourselves off from revelation.

~ Madeleine L'engle

And it came to me as I stood on the desert sand, looking at the Great Pyramid, that what any civilization says about God tells us more about that civilization than it does about God.

~ Madeleine L'engle

But when the world is, indeed, in chaos, then an affirmation of cosmos becomes essential.

~ Madeleine L'engle

We cannot always cry at the right timeand who is to say which time is right?

~ Madeleine L'engle

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

~ Madeleine L'engle

Some of these questions don't have finite answers, but the questions themselves are important. Don't stop asking, and don't let anybody tell you the questions aren't worth it. They are.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Questions are disturbing, especially those which may threaten our traditions, our institutions, our security. But questions never threaten the living God, who is constantly calling us, and who affirms for us that love is stronger than hate, blessings stronger than cursing.

~ Madeleine L'engle

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

~ Madeleine L'engle

Right now I am like the unborn baby in the womb, knowing nothing except the comforting warmth of the amniotic fluid in which I swim, the comforting nourishment entering my body from a source I cannot see or understand. My whole being comes from an unseen, unknown nurturer. By that nurturer I am totally loved and protected, and that love is forever. It does not end when I am precipitated out of the safe waters of the womb into the unsafe world. It will. It end when I breathe my last, mortal breath. That love manifested itself joyously in the creation of the universe, became particular for us in Jesus, and will show itself most gloriously in the Second Coming. We need not fear.

~ Madeleine L'engle

When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening.

~ Madeleine L'engle

but BEing time is never wasted time. When we are BEing, not only are we collaborating with chronological time, but we are touching on kairos, and are freed from the normal restrictions of time.

~ Madeleine L'engle

There’s no such thing as an unbreakable scientific rule, because, sooner or later, they all seem to get broken. Or to change.

~ Madeleine L'engle

There is nothing that makes me happier than sitting around the dinner table and talking until the candles are burned down.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Because you're not what I would have you be I blind myself to who in truth you are.

~ Madeleine L'engle

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.

~ Madeleine L'engle

We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.

~ Madeleine L'engle

Because you're not what I would have you be, I blind myself to who, in truth, you are.

~ 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.

~ Madeleine L'engle

When the bright angel dominates, out comes a great work of art, a Michelangelo David or a Beethoven symphony.

~ Madeleine L'engle