42 Madeleine L’Engle Quotes About Life (WRITING)

Top 10 Most Famous Madeleine L’Engle Quotes (BEST)

“We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”
Madeleine L’Engle

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. — You have to **write** the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been. — The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.

When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things. — When we **believe** in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.

“What I believe is so magnificent, so glorious, that it is beyond finite comprehension. To believe that the universe was created by a purposeful, benign Creator is one thing. To believe that this Creator took on human vesture, accepted death and mortality, was tempted, betrayed, broken, and all for love of us, defies reason. It is so wild that it terrifies some Christians who try to dogmatize their fear by lashing out at other Christians, because tidy Christianity with all answers given is easier than one which reaches out to the wild wonder of God’s love, a love we don’t even have to earn.”
Madeleine L’Engle

A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving. — Stories make us more alive, more human, more **courageous**, more loving.

Because we fail to listen to each other's stories, we are becoming a fragmented human race. — Because we fail to listen to each other’s stories, we are becoming a fragmented human race.

Like it or not, we either add to the darkness of indifference and out-and-out evil which surrounds us or we light a candle to see by.

7 Madeleine L’Engle Quotes About Life

“If you don’t recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.”
Madeleine L’Engle

Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet. — **Life**, with its rules, its obligations, and its **freedoms**, is like a sonnet.

Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light. — Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can **appreciate** the light.

We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home.

“The world has been abnormal for so long that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to live in a peaceful and reasonable climate. If there is to be any peace or reason, we have to create it in our own hearts and homes.”
Madeleine L’Engle

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth. — Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find **truth**.

Agape love is... profound concern for the well-being of another, without any desire to control that other, to be thanked by that other, or to enjoy the process. — Agape love is… profound concern for the well-being of another, without any desire to control that other, to be thanked by that other, or to enjoy the process.

5 Madeleine L’Engle Quotes About God

“I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.”
Madeleine L’Engle

I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally.

I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights.

It is when things go wrong when good things do not happen when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. — It is when things go wrong when good things do not happen when our **prayers** seem to have been lost, that God is most present.

To pray is to listen, to move through my own chattering to God, to that place where I can be silent and listen to what God may have to say.

9 WiseMadeleine L’Engle Quotes to Live By (WISDOM)

“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.”
Madeleine L’Engle

A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.

If we are not willing to fail we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure. — If we are not willing to fail we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of **failure**.

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

“In art we are once again able to do all the things we have forgotten; we are able to walk on water; we speak to the angels who call us; we move, unfettered, among the stars.”
Madeleine L’Engle

Nothing, no one, is too small to matter. What you do is going to make a difference.

Don't try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition. — Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.

We can't take any credit for our talents. — We can’t take any credit for our **talents**.

Just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist. — Just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean that the explanation doesn’t exist.

3 Madeleine L’Engle Quotes on Love and Marriage

“If we commit ourselves to one person for life, this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather, it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession but participation.”
Madeleine L’Engle

We do not love each other without changing each other. — We do not **love** each other without **changing** each other.

“A long-term marriage has to move beyond chemistry to compatibility, to friendship, to companionship. It is certainly not that passion disappears, but that it is conjoined with other ways of love.”
Madeleine L’Engle

8 Madeleine L’Engle Quotes that Will Make You Think

“But grief still has to be worked through. It is like walking through water. Sometimes there are little waves lapping about my feet. Sometimes there is an enormous breaker that knocks me down. Sometimes there is a sudden and fierce squall. But I know that many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”
Madeleine L’Engle

We know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing, this seeing.

A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete.

Maybe I don't like being different... but I don't want to be like everybody else either. — Maybe I don’t like being different… but I don’t want to be like everybody else either.

“Creativity comes from accepting that you’re not safe, from being absolutely aware, and from letting go of control. It’s a matter of seeing everything – even when you want to shut your eyes.”
Madeleine L’Engle