850 Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle

A great painting or symphony or play, doesn’t diminish us, but enlarges us, and we, too, want to make our own cry of affirmation to the power of Creation behind the Universe...

Meg cut up some celery and mixed it in with the tuna. After a moment’s hesitation she opened the refrigerator door and brought out a jar of little sweet pickles.-Though why I’m doing it for her I don’t know, she thought, as she cut them up.-I don’t trust her one bit.

I think your mythology would call them fallen angels. War and hate are their business, and one of their chief weapons is un-Naming – making people not know who they are. If someone knows who he is, really knows, then he doesn’t need to hate. That’s why we still need Namers, because there are places throughout the universe like your planet Earth. When everyone is really and truly Named, then the Echthroi will be vanquished.

You’re much too straightforward to be able to pretend to be what you aren’t,” Mrs. Murry said.

There is little character or loveliness in the face of someone who has shunned risk, avoided suffering and rejected life.

Maybe the theatre isn’t any place for a reasonable human being after all. It keeps your emotions in such a constant state of upheaval. It’s really terribly wearing. I wonder if I could stand it, one emotional upset after the other just going on and on for the rest of my life.

Meaninglessness inhibits fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness. Meaning makes a great many things endurable – perhaps everything... It is not that ‘God’ is a myth, but that myth is the revelation of a divine life in man. It is not we who invent myth; rather, it speaks to us as a Word of God.

Love can’t be pinned down by a definition, and it certainly can’t be proved, any more than anything else important in life can be proved.

We are the called according to His purpose, and whom He calls, them He also justifies. Of course we have help, and without help it would be much more difficult.