I have this slightly abnormal affinity for quotes and an ability to remember them when my memory often fails me in other areas – so I figured a quote section of this blog was an important reflection of what has shaped and deepened and challenged me – some quotes may be profoundly true and others may be stolen from books for the shear fact that they are full of eloquent prose – whenever a quote hits me, I will just add it here rather than making a whole post dedicated to it…

“Then the time came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was far greater than the risk it took to blossom.” -Anais Nin

“I went to the root of all things and found nothing but Him alone.” -Mira Bai

“The Ragamuffin rabble are the unsung assembly of saved sinners who are little in their own sight, conscious of their brokenness and powerlessness before God, and who cast themselves on His mercy. Startled by the extravagant love of God, they do not require success, fame, wealth, or power to validate their worth.  Their spirit transcends all distinctions between the powerful and powerless, educated and illiterate, billionaires and bag ladies, high-tech geeks and low-tech nerds, males and females, the circus and the sanctuary.” -Brennan Manning

“She smiles, but I laugh.” -Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” -Maya Angelou

“I tell you it has taken all my life to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels, to soften and blur and finally banish the edges you regret I don’t see, to learn that the line I called the horizon does not exist and sky and water so long apart, are the same state of being.” -Lisel Mueller

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.” -Emily Dickinson

“Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower wil will grieve not.  Rather find strength in what remains behind.  In the primal sympathy which having been must ever be.  In the soothing thoughts that spring out of human suffering.  In the faith that looks through death…Thanks to the human heart by which we live.  Thanks to it’s tenderness, it’s joys, it’s fears.  To me the meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.” -William Wordsworth

“Child don’t close your eyes – the truth contains much beauty – and though it scars your soul, it’ll heal the wounds it makes.  You’ve been deceived to think that pain is to be dreaded, when you’ve got nothing left, it’ll give more than it takes.” -Kendall Payne

“You could say I’m finding a new simplicity on the far side of complexity – because I believe the real Jesus is all these sketches and more.” -Brian McLaren

“And she is going to dance, dance hungry, dance full, dance each astonishing moment…” -Anne Lamott

“In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! We are not bound forever to the circles of this world, and beyond them is more than memory.” -Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

“No one can find true life unless they have risked their mind in the desert.” -Thomas Merton

“Answers only make more questions. I need something to believe in.  Breathe in sanctuary in the easy silence that you make for me.  It’s ok when there’s nothing more to say to me.  And the peaceful quiet you create for me.  And the way you keep the world at bay for me.” -Dixie Chicks

“Sometimes we must let go of images of God that we once held dear so that they might mature into something new.” -Garreth Higgins

“Yet ever as they listened, they came to deeper understanding and increased in unison and harmony.” -Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

“I use these words pretty loosely, there’s so much more to life than words.” -Over the Rhine