Looking for a great read during this upcoming holiday weekend? SCH contributor, Jenny Klouse, shares her favorite quotes by Madeline L’Engle. A writer known for imparting her faith into her writings, the author of the literary classics such as, A Wrinkle In Time, still brings life and wisdom into current circumstances.
Once you’ve read through these favorite quotes by Madeline L’Engle, you can read more about her personal and literary story here.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses . . .”
Hebrews 12:1
As a woman, it is encouraging to me to remember the women who have gone before me and who have paved the way for me to find freedom and purpose in using my God-given gifts. Madeline L’Engle is one woman who embraced her writing gift and imparted her faith into her stories. Oh, how I loved A Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid! I have gathered some of Madeline’s great lines for this collection of quotes.
Faith
“Some things have to be believed to be seen.”
“It might be a good idea if, like the White Queen, we practiced believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast, for we are called on to believe what to many people is impossible. Instead of rejoicing in this glorious “impossible” which gives meaning and dignity to our lives, we try to domesticate God, to make his might actions comprehensible to our finite minds.”
“Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.”
Marriage and Love
“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.” The Irrational Season
“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.” Walking on Water
Becoming Ourselves
“We can’t take any credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.” A Wrinkle in Time
“We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.”
“I look at Mother, and think that if I am to reflect on the eventual death of her body, of all bodies, in a way that is not destructive, I must never lose sight of those other deaths which precede the final, physical death, the deaths over which we have some freedom: the death of self-will, self-indulgence, self-deception, all those self-devices which, instead of making us more fully alive, make us less.” The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
“I really do understand that people change, as Wolfi said, not so much from who we are as to who we are.” A Severed Wasp
“Sometimes when we have to speak suddenly we come closer to the truth than when we have time to think.” A Circle of Quiet
“The deeper and richer a personality is, the more full it is of paradox and contradiction. It is only a shallow character who offers us no problems of contrast.” Circle of Quiet
Community
The scientists think it likely that there may be other planets out there, but this far nobody’s been able to communicate with anybody else. Maybe we’d better learn to communicate with each other first.”
“Wherever there is unity in diversity, then we are free to be ourselves; it cannot be done in isolation; we need each other.” A Circle of Quiet
“My moments of being most complete, most integrated, have come either in complete solitude or when I am being part of a body made up of many people going in the same direction.” The Irrational Season
Art
“Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.”
“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.” A Wrinkle in Time
Feeling a rush of inspiration? You might also enjoy 10 Favorite C.S. Lewis Quotes of Christian Encouragement
You can also find SCH contributor Jenny Klouse over on her personal blog, here.
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