Wherever we go, there seems to be only one business at hand – that of finding a workable compromise between the sublimity of our ideas and the absurdity of the fact of us.
ANNIE DILLARDWherever we go, there seems to be only one business at hand – that of finding a workable compromise between the sublimity of our ideas and the absurdity of the fact of us.
ANNIE DILLARDYou do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
ANNIE DILLARDOur life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery.
ANNIE DILLARDHe is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know.
ANNIE DILLARDI had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.
ANNIE DILLARDNothing moves a woman so deeply as the boyhood of the man she loves.
ANNIE DILLARDWe have not yet encountered any god who is as merciful as a man who flicks a beetle over on its feet.
ANNIE DILLARDThe real and proper question is: why is it beautiful
ANNIE DILLARDWe are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we control any switches at all.
ANNIE DILLARDNo one escapes the wilderness on the way to the promised land.
ANNIE DILLARDEvery live thing is a survivor on a kind of extended emergency bivouac.
ANNIE DILLARDThe dedicated life is worth living. You must give with your whole heart.
ANNIE DILLARDWe live in all we seek.
ANNIE DILLARDYou’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.
ANNIE DILLARDI cannot cause light; the most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam. It is possible, in deep space, to sail on solar wind. Light, be it particle or wave, has force: you rig a giant sail and go. The secret of seeing is to sail on solar wind.
ANNIE DILLARDI come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn’t flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames.
ANNIE DILLARD