“St. John said, "And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not understand it, and cannot extinguish it ( I need the double meaning here of comprehend). This is the great cry of affirmation that is heard over and over again in our imaginative literature, in all art.”
Section 3.13 <!-- p. 183 -->
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Context: St. John said, "And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not understand it, and cannot extinguish it ( I need the double meaning here of comprehend). This is the great cry of affirmation that is heard over and over again in our imaginative literature, in all art. It is a light to lighten our darkness, to guide us, and we do not need to know, in the realm of provable fact, exactly where it is going to take us.
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Madeleine L'Engle223
American writer 1918–2007Related quotes
Edna O'Brien (1930) Novelist, memoirist, biographer, playwright, poet and short story writer
Source: In the Forest
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“Even with these dark eyes, a gift of the dark night
I go to seek the shining light.”
Gu Cheng (1956–1993) Chinese poet
"A Generation" [Yidai ren]
Ted Dekker book House
Variant: The light came into the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it, but that no longer mattered because the light was now obliteration the darkness.
Source: House
Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer
Section 1 : The Meaning of Life
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: Here are two kinds of light, the light on the hither side of the darkness and the light beyond the darkness. We must press on through the darkness and the terror of it if we would reach the holier light beyond.
We are here — no matter who put us here, or how we came here — to fulfil a task. We cannot afford to go of our own volition until the last item of our duty is discharged.
Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
Context: Suddenly there was a great burst of light through the Darkness. The light spread out and where it touched the Darkness the Darkness disappeared. The light spread until the patch of Dark Thing had vanished, and there was only a gentle shining, and through the shining came the stars, clear and pure.
Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor
Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are