352 Quotes by Diane Ackerman

It began in mystery and it will end in mystery, but what a rare and beautiful country lies in between.

How can love's spaciousnessbe conveyed in the narrowconfines of one syllable?

So much in a relationship changes when a partner is seriously ill, helpless yet blameless, and indefatigably needy. I felt old. [p. 99] The animal part of him in pain accepted my caring. But the part of himself watching himself in that pain didn't believe I could ever respect him again. None of this crossed my mind. I couldn't risk knowing it. No one could and continue caregiving. They'd feel so unappreciated and wronged that it would drive them away. [p. 100]

Sometimes with a flutter of agitated worry that felt like a beetle was trapped inside my ribs. p. 90

Five weeks in the hospital fled as if down a sinkhole into the middle of the earth. ... Can waiting by definition slow, flash by? ... Time becomes even more elastic than usual--minutes can stretch for ages and days suddenly snap together. [p. 97]

Seres tan encariñados con su libertad como los seres humanos saben cómo volver a plantear casi cualquier tema. Si hay una cosa en la que realmente nos mostramos magistrales, es en empujar los límites, inventar estrategias, encontrar caminos para rodear las verdades más impías, tomar a la vida por las solapas y sacudirla sin piedad. Es cierto que la vida tiende a devolver los golpes, pero eso nunca ha bastado para deternos.

Perversion is the erotic form of hatred.

There is a way of beholding nature that is itself a form of prayer.

We think of it as a sort of traffic accident of the heart. It is an emotion that scares us more than cruelty, more than violence, more than hatred. We allow ourselves to be foiled by the vagueness of the word. After all, love requires the utmost vulnerability. We equip someone with freshly sharpened knives; strip naked; then invite him to stand close. What could be scarier?