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Annie Dillard Quotes

If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldn’t believe the world existed Picture Quote #1

Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall Picture Quote #1

You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it: There is nothing there... You feel the world’s word as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: This hum is the silence Picture Quote #1

Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Picture Quote #1

The more you read, the more you will write. The better the stuff you read, the better the stuff you will write Picture Quote #1

Nothing on earth is more gladdening than knowing we must roll up our sleeves and move back the boundaries of the humanly possible once more Picture Quote #1

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We are here to abet creation and to witness to it, to notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house Picture Quote #1

I have since only rarely seen the tree with the lights in it. The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I live for it, for the moment when the mountains open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam Picture Quote #1

I had hopes for my rough edges. I wanted to use them as a can opener, to cut myself a hole in the world’s surface and exit through it Picture Quote #1

Hone and spread your spirit till you yourself are a sail, whetted, translucent, broadside to the merest puff Picture Quote #1

We are here on the planet only once, and might as well get a feel for the place Picture Quote #1

We are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we control any switches at all Picture Quote #1

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Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can’t think about them. I live with trees Picture Quote #1

Even if things are as bad as they could possible be, and as meaningless, then matters of truth are themselves indifferent; we may as well please our sensibilities and, with as much spirit as we can muster, go out with a buck and a wing Picture Quote #1

I would like to live... open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will Picture Quote #1

We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us Picture Quote #1

When you write, you lay out a line of words. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory Picture Quote #1

The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring Picture Quote #1

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If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair... or go into business. You’ve got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down Picture Quote #1

The mind itself is an art object... The mind is a blue guitar on which we improvise the song of the world Picture Quote #1

Every spring he vowed to quit teaching school, and every summer he missed his pupils and searched for them on the streets Picture Quote #1

When I walk with a camera, I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all an unscrupulous observer Picture Quote #1

Take a quick dip, relax with a schnapps and a sandwich, stretch out, have a smoke, take a nap or just rest, and then sit around and chat until three. Then I hunt some more until sundown, bathe again, put on white tie and tails to keep up appearances, eat a huge dinner, smoke a cigar and sleep like a log until the sun comes up again to redden the eastern sky. This is living…. Could it be more perfect? Picture Quote #1

I don’t know what it is about fecundity that so appalls. I suppose it is the teeming evidence that birth and growth, which we value, are ubiquitous and blind, that life itself is so astonishingly cheap, that nature is as careless as it is bountiful, and that with extravagance goes a crushing waste that will one day include our own cheap lives Picture Quote #1

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Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality? Picture Quote #1

The mind wants to live forever, or to learn a very good reason why not. The mind wants the world to return its love, or its awareness... The mind’s sidekick, however, will settle for two eggs over easy. The dear, stupid body is easily satisfied as a spaniel. And, incredibly, the simple spaniel can lure the brawling mind to its dish. It is everlastingly funny that the proud, metaphysically ambitious mind will hush if you give it an egg Picture Quote #1

What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, its filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild and extravagant nature of the spirit I seek Picture Quote #1

Theirs is the mystery of continuous creation and all that providence implies: the uncertainty of vision, the horror of the fixed, the dissolution of the present, the intricacy of beauty, the pressure of fecundity, the elusiveness of the free, and the flawed nature of perfection Picture Quote #1

Like any child, I slid into myself perfectly fitted, as a diver meets her reflection in a pool. Her fingertips enter the fingertips on the water, her wrists slide up her arms. The diver wraps herself in her reflection wholly, sealing it at the toes, and wears it as she climbs rising from the pool, and ever after Picture Quote #1

There is neither a proportional relationship, nor an inverse one, between a writer’s estimation of a work in progress and its actual quality. The feeling that the work is magnificent, and the feeling that it is abominable, are both mosquitoes to be repelled, ignored, or killed, but not indulged Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldn’t believe the world existed (Annie Dillard Quotes) Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall (Annie Dillard Quotes) You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it: There is nothing there... You feel the world’s word as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: This hum is the silence (Annie Dillard Quotes) Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? (Annie Dillard Quotes) The more you read, the more you will write. The better the stuff you read, the better the stuff you will write (Annie Dillard Quotes) Nothing on earth is more gladdening than knowing we must roll up our sleeves and move back the boundaries of the humanly possible once more (Annie Dillard Quotes) We are here to abet creation and to witness to it, to notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house (Annie Dillard Quotes) I have since only rarely seen the tree with the lights in it. The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I live for it, for the moment when the mountains open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam (Annie Dillard Quotes) I had hopes for my rough edges. I wanted to use them as a can opener, to cut myself a hole in the world’s surface and exit through it (Annie Dillard Quotes) Hone and spread your spirit till you yourself are a sail, whetted, translucent, broadside to the merest puff (Annie Dillard Quotes) We are here on the planet only once, and might as well get a feel for the place (Annie Dillard Quotes) We are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we control any switches at all (Annie Dillard Quotes) Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can’t think about them. I live with trees (Annie Dillard Quotes) Even if things are as bad as they could possible be, and as meaningless, then matters of truth are themselves indifferent; we may as well please our sensibilities and, with as much spirit as we can muster, go out with a buck and a wing (Annie Dillard Quotes) I would like to live... open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will (Annie Dillard Quotes) We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us (Annie Dillard Quotes) When you write, you lay out a line of words. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory (Annie Dillard Quotes) The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring (Annie Dillard Quotes) If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair... or go into business. You’ve got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down (Annie Dillard Quotes) The mind itself is an art object... The mind is a blue guitar on which we improvise the song of the world (Annie Dillard Quotes) Every spring he vowed to quit teaching school, and every summer he missed his pupils and searched for them on the streets (Annie Dillard Quotes) When I walk with a camera, I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all an unscrupulous observer (Annie Dillard Quotes) Take a quick dip, relax with a schnapps and a sandwich, stretch out, have a smoke, take a nap or just rest, and then sit around and chat until three. Then I hunt some more until sundown, bathe again, put on white tie and tails to keep up appearances, eat a huge dinner, smoke a cigar and sleep like a log until the sun comes up again to redden the eastern sky. This is living…. Could it be more perfect? (Annie Dillard Quotes) I don’t know what it is about fecundity that so appalls. I suppose it is the teeming evidence that birth and growth, which we value, are ubiquitous and blind, that life itself is so astonishingly cheap, that nature is as careless as it is bountiful, and that with extravagance goes a crushing waste that will one day include our own cheap lives (Annie Dillard Quotes) Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality? (Annie Dillard Quotes) The mind wants to live forever, or to learn a very good reason why not. The mind wants the world to return its love, or its awareness... The mind’s sidekick, however, will settle for two eggs over easy. The dear, stupid body is easily satisfied as a spaniel. And, incredibly, the simple spaniel can lure the brawling mind to its dish. It is everlastingly funny that the proud, metaphysically ambitious mind will hush if you give it an egg (Annie Dillard Quotes) What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, its filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild and extravagant nature of the spirit I seek (Annie Dillard Quotes) Theirs is the mystery of continuous creation and all that providence implies: the uncertainty of vision, the horror of the fixed, the dissolution of the present, the intricacy of beauty, the pressure of fecundity, the elusiveness of the free, and the flawed nature of perfection (Annie Dillard Quotes) Like any child, I slid into myself perfectly fitted, as a diver meets her reflection in a pool. Her fingertips enter the fingertips on the water, her wrists slide up her arms. The diver wraps herself in her reflection wholly, sealing it at the toes, and wears it as she climbs rising from the pool, and ever after (Annie Dillard Quotes) There is neither a proportional relationship, nor an inverse one, between a writer’s estimation of a work in progress and its actual quality. The feeling that the work is magnificent, and the feeling that it is abominable, are both mosquitoes to be repelled, ignored, or killed, but not indulged (Annie Dillard Quotes)

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