Madeleine L'Engle Quotes - Page 4

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

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

You don't want him for a reason. You want him because he's your father.

In my dreams, I never have an age.

We are a generation which is crying loudly to tear down all structure in order to find freedom, and discovering, when order is demolished, that instead of freedom we have death.

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

The best way to guide children without coercion is to be ourselves.

If it's not good enough for adults, it's not good enough for children. If a book that is going to be marketed for children does not interest me, a grownup, then I am dishonoring the children for whom the book is intended, and I am dishonoring books. And words.

We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.

We are going to your father," Mrs. Which said.

"But where is he?" Meg went over to Mrs. Which and stamped as though she were as young as Charles Wallace.

Mrs. Whatsit answered in a voice that was low but quite firm. "On a planet that has given in. So you must prepare to be very strong.

If we are to be aware of life while we are living it, we must have the courage to relinquish our hard-earned control of ourselves.

An infinite question is often destroyed by finite answers. To define everything is to annihilate much that gives us laughter and joy.

But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.

If we allow our "high creativity" to remain alive, we will never be bored. We can pray, standing in line at the super market. Or we can be lost in awe at all the people around us, their lives full of glory and tragedy, and suddenly we will have the beginnings of a painting, a story, a song.

Creativity is a way of living life, no matter what our vocation, or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts...

The creative impulse can be killed, but it cannot be taught...What a teacher can do...in working with children, is to give the flame enough oxygen so that it can burn. As far as I'm concerned, this providing of oxygen is one of the noblest of all vocations.

Human beings are the only creatures who are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it's dead. But we're allowed to learn from our mistakes and from our failures. And that's how I learn, by falling flat on my face and picking myself up and starting all over again.