352 Quotes by Diane Ackerman

We tend to think of heroes only in terms of violent combat, whether it’s against enemies or a natural disaster. But human beings also perform radical acts of compassion; we just don’t talk about them, or we don’t talk about them as much.

Meanwhile, the war storm blew violently, scaring all, and “casting a shadow on the lives of our Guests, who fled from the entrance of crematoriums and the thresholds of gas chambers,” needing more than refuge. “They desperately needed hope that a safe haven even existed, that the war’s horrors would one day end,” while they drifted along in the strange villa even its owners referred to as an ark.

Though we marry as adults, we don’t marry adults. We marry children who have grown up and still rejoice in being children, especially if we’re creative.

And yet, words are the passkeys to our souls. Without them, we can’t really share the enormity of our lives.

Part of the irony of environmentalism is questing for solutions when you know you’re part of the problem.

Of all the errands life seems to be running, of all the mysteries that enchant us, love is my favorite.

Frantic and serene, vigilant and calm, wrung-out and fortified, explosive and sedate – love commands a vast army of moods. Hoping for victory, limping from the latest skirmish, lovers enter the arena once again. Sitting still, we are as daring as gladiators.

The heart is a museum, filled with the exhibits of a lifetime’s loves.

Don’t think of night as the absence of day; think of it as a kind of freedom. Turned away from our sun, we see the dawning of far flung galaxies. We are no longer sun blinded to the star coated universe we inhabit.