198 Quotes by Jan Karon

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard ; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common – this is my symphony. William Henry Channing, clergyman, reformer, 1810-1884.

Lord,” he said aloud, “I’m not going to pray, I only want to listen. Why does Dooley turn away from us?

We don’t have to do great things to make a difference. We can make a great difference by doing small things graciously.

No two persons every read the same book. – Edmund Wilson “Nor does any one person ever reread the same book!

For a very long time, I wrote a book a year, and was eager and willing to do it, to put bread on the table, to have my work out there. Now I must write a book every two years, and that’s never enough time, either.

Every saint has a past, the sixteenth-century poet had said, and every sinner has a future.

Faith by its very nature must be tried... what God does with our faith must be something like workouts. He sees it to that our faith gets mushed and pulled, stretched and pounded, taken to it’s limits so its limits can expand... If it doesn’t get exercised, it becomes like a weak muscle that fails us when we need it.

Sometimes you have to gag on fancy before you can appreciate plain...

I learned over a long period of trial and error to see in him what God made him to be. Wounded people use a lot of smoke and mirrors, they thrust the bitterness and rage out there like a shield. Then it becomes their banner, and finally, their weapon. But I stopped falling for the bitterness and rage. I didn’t stop knowing it was there – and there for a very good reason – but I stopped taking the bullet for it. With God’s help, I was able to start seeing through the smoke.