My quote notebook, which I’ve been keeping since at least high school is full–especially in its early pages, but also in its later ones–of L’Engle quotes.
“The only way to deal with something deadly serious is to try and treat it a little lightly.”
— A Wrinkle in Time
” … Meg, I give you your faults.”
“My faults!” Meg cried.
“Your faults.”
“But I’m always trying to get rid of my faults!”
“Yes,” Mrs. Whatsit said. “However, I think you’ll find they come in quite handy on Camazotz.”
— A Wrinkle in Time
— A Wrinkle in Time
“Do the inhabitants of Yadah seem more limited than human beings because once they have taken root they cannot move? But human beings need Deepening Places, too. And far too many never have any.”
— A Wind in the Door
“That’s a sure way to tell about somebody–the way they play, or don’t play, make-believe.”
— Dragons on the Waters
“If someone kills a butterfly, it could cause an earthquake in a galaxy a trillion miles away.”
— A Ring of Endless Light
(Yes, I know there are no galaxies a million miles away. I don’t care.)
“Prayer was never meant to be magic.”
“Then why bother with it?”
“Because it’s an act of love.”
— A Ring of Endless Light
“A daffodil pushing up through the dark earth to spring, knowing somehow deep in its roots that spring and sunshine will come, has more courage and more knowledge of the value of human life than any human being I’ve ever met.”
— Camilla
“Love of music, of sunsets and sea; a liking for the same kind of people. Political views which are not radically divergent; a similar stance as we look at the stars and think of the marvelous strangeness of the universe–these are what build a marriage. And it is never to be taken for granted.”
— Two Part Invention
“I can’t do anything except because I care about people, because I love people. I can’t do it for the love of God … or for heaven’s sake … But because I love people I have to act according to it–to the fact that I love them.”
— Arm of the Starfish
“It’s the fall of the sparrow I care about. But who’s the sparrow? We run into problems there, too.”
— Arm of the Starfish
“If you’re going to care about the call of the sparrow, you can’t pick and choose who’s going to be the sparrow. it’s everybody, and you’re stuck with it.”
— Arm of the Starfish
“Your planet does not deal gently with lovers of peace.”
— A Swiftly Tilting Planet
And of course:
“With Tara in this fateful hour
I place all heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness,
All these I place
By God’s almighty help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness.”
— A Swiftly Tilting Planet