Madeleine L'Engle: Doing

Madeleine L'Engle was American writer. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Madeleine L'Engle: 446   quotes 5   likes

“We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledging that they cannot take us all the way.”

Madeleine L'Engle

Section 1.10 <!-- p. 32 -->
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Context: We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledging that they cannot take us all the way.
We can give a child a self-image. But is this a good idea? Hitler did a devastating job at that kind of thing. So does Chairman Mao. … I haven't defined a self, nor do I want to. A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.

Way

“We do not go around and discard the intellect, but we must go through and beyond it.”

Madeleine L'Engle

Section 1.16 <!-- p. 43 -->
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Context: It is all, as usual, paradox. I have to use what intellect I have in order to write books, but I write the kind of books I do in order that I may try to set down glimpses of things that are on the other side of the intellect. We do not go around and discard the intellect, but we must go through and beyond it.

“I have never served a work as I would like to, but I do try, with each book, to serve to the best of my ability, and this attempt at serving is the greatest privilege and the greatest joy that I know.”

Madeleine L'Engle

The Crosswicks Journal, The Irrational Season (1977)
Context: I am convinced that each work of art, be it a great work of genius or something very small, has its own life, and it will come to the artist, the composer or the writer or the painter, and say, "Here I am: compose me; or write me; or paint me"; and the job of the artist is to serve the work. I have never served a work as I would like to, but I do try, with each book, to serve to the best of my ability, and this attempt at serving is the greatest privilege and the greatest joy that I know.

Books , Joy

“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.”

Madeleine L'Engle
Truth , World , Singing , Painting

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

Madeleine L'Engle

Source: Swiftly Tilting Planet

Star , Sun , Parting

“We do not know what things look like.
We know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing, this seeing. -Aunt Beast”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

“Creative scientists and saints expect revelation and do not fear it. Neither do children. But as we grow up and we are hurt, we learned not to trust.”

Madeleine L'Engle
Children , Fear , Learning , Hurt

“I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, "This is what I believe. Finished." What I believe is alive… and open to growth”

Madeleine L'Engle
Thinking

“I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

Understanding , Learning

“We do learn and develop when we are exposed to those who are greater than we are. Perhaps this is the chief way we mature.”

Madeleine L'Engle

Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

Way , Learning

“Meg, don't you think you'd make a better adjustment to life if you faced facts?"
I do face facts," Meg said.
They're lots easier to face than people, I can tell you.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

Life , People , Thinking

“Love isn't how you feel. It's what you do. I've never had a feeling in my life. As a matter of fact, I matter only with earth people.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Wind in the Door

Source: A Wind in the Door

Love , Life , People , Feeling

“Our story is never written in isolation. We do not act in a one-man play. We can do nothing that does not affect other people, no matter how loudly we say, "It's my own business.”

Madeleine L'Engle

Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

People , Business

“Nothing, no one, is too small to matter. What you do is going to make a difference.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Source: A Swiftly Tilting Planet

“Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

Madeleine L'Engle
Faith , Universe

“If our lives are truly "hid with Christ in God," the astounding thing is that this hiddenness is revealed in all that we do and say and write. What we are is going to be visible in our art, no matter how secular (on the surface) the subject may be.”

Madeleine L'Engle

Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

God , Art , Christ

“I wrote, after an early rejection, "X turned down Wrinkle, turned it down with one hand while saying that he loved it, but didn't quite dare to do it, as it really isn't classifiable. I know it isn't really classifiable, and am wondering if i'll have to go through the usual hell with this that I seem to go through with everything I write. But this book I'm sure of. If I've ever written a book that says how I feel about God and the universe, this is it. This is my psalm of praise…”

Madeleine L'Engle

Section 4.10
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)

Love , God , Books , Feeling