Quotes from Madeleine L'Engle

Goodness has never been a guarantee of safety.

Compassion is nothing one feels with the intellect alone. Compassion is particular; it is never general.

you've got to learn to walk through a pigpen and not get dirty.

Life is not easy and comfortable, with nothing ever going wrong as long as you buy the right product. It's not true that if you have the right insurance everything is going to be fine. That's not what it's really like. Terrible things happen. And those are the things we learn from.

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

I knew that the moment I started worrying about whether or not I was good enough for the job, I wouldn't be able to do it.

We have to make decisions, and we can't make them if they're based on fear.

Jesus, who comes across in the Gospels as extraordinarily strong, begged in the garden, with drops of sweat like blood running down his face, that he might be spared the terrible cup ahead of him, the betrayal and abandonment by his friends, death on the cross. Because Jesus cried out in anguish, we may too. But our fear is less frequent and infinitely less if we are close to the Creator. Jesus, having cried out, then let his fear go, and moved on.

Rather than feeling lost and unimportant and meaningless, set against galaxies which go beyond the reach of the furthest telescopes, I feel that my life has meaning. Perhaps I should feel insignificant, but instead I feel a soaring in my heart that the God who could create all this — and out of nothing — can still count the hairs of my head.

Friends do everything they can to protect each other. --Polly

We turn to stories and pictures and music because they show us who and what and why we are, and what our relationship is to life and death, what is essential, and what, despite the arbitrariness of falling beams, will not burn.

She felt that she was being measured and found wanting.

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

There are still stars which move in ordered and beautiful rhythm. There are still people in this world who keep promises.

The artist, if he is not to forget how to listen, must retain the visionwhich includes angels and dragons and unicorns, and all the lovely creatures which our world would put in a bos marked, 'Children Only.

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.

It does not matter that we cannot fathom this mystery. The only real problem comes when we think that we have.

You don't know the meaning of moderation, do you, my darling? A happy medium is something I wonder if you'll ever learn.

It was a star, Mrs. Whatsit said sadly. A star giving up its life in battle with the Thing. It won, oh, yes, my children, it won. But it lost its life in the winning.

In other words, to put it into Euclid, or old-fashioned plane geometry, a straight line is not the shortest distance between two points.

Fewmets is my new swear word. I'm tired of all the old ones.

Beware of pride and arrogance, Charles, for they may betray you.

She was enfolded in the great wings of Mrs. Whatsit and she felt comfort and strength pouring through her. Mrs. Whatsit was not speaking aloud, and yet through the wings Meg understood words. My child, do not despair. Do you think we would have brought you here if there was no hope? We are asking you to do a difficult thing, but we are confident that you can do it. Your father needs help, he needs courage, and for his children he may be able to do what he cannot do for himself.

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