Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER
BARBARA KINGSOLVER
Barbara Kingsolver on meaningful
Barbara Kingsolver213 quotes“Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.”
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He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part of the story. I am born of a man who believed he could tell nothing but the truth, while he set down for all time the Poisonwood Bible.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver I don’t understand how any good art could fail to be political.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver Fiction and essays can create empathy for the theoretical stranger.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver Downstream is always someone else’s up.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work – that goes on, it adds up.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver The loudest sound on earth, she thought, is a man with nothing to do.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver I do my best work if I think about what it is I have to offer.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver Vengeance does not subtract any numbers from the equation of murder; it only adds them.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver It is harrowing for me to try to teach 20-year-old students, who earnestly want to improve their writing. The best I can think to tell them is: Quit smoking, and observe posted speed limits. This will improve your odds of getting old enough to be wise.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver What keeps me awake at the wheel is the thrill of trying something completely new with each book. I’m not a risk-taker in life, generally speaking, but as a writer I definitely choose the fast car, the impossible rock face, the free fall.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver …our best task is to move forward without insisting others slide backward.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver Like kids who only ever get socks for Christmas, but still believe with all their hearts in Santa.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver …nothing momentous comes in this world unless it comes on the shoulders of kindness.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver This is what it means to be alone: everyone is connected to everyone else, their bodies are a bright liquid life flowing around you, sharing a single heart that drives them to move all together. If the shark comes they will all escape, and leave you to be eaten.
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver
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Meet the writers
More on meaningful
Creating a meaningful life has less to do with how we feel about our past than what we do about our future.
Bill CrawfordBill Crawford Each day becomes more meaningful, and your life is enhanced when your actions are guided by what inspires you.
Bernie SiegelBernie Siegel The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.
Bernard BaruchBernard Baruch You either get life or you don’t, and if you don’t – life gets you.
Bert ConvyBert Convy Inspiration is the greatest gift because it opens your life to many new possibilities.
Bernie SiegelBernie Siegel Folks will quickly applaud you and tell you how much they admire you for “taking a stand” on biblical truth. Except if you quote Matt. 5:44 and invite people to apply it in any sort of meaningful, literal way.
Benjamin L. CoreyBenjamin L. Corey Relationships keep us alive and our lives meaningful.
Bernie SiegelBernie Siegel An awareness of one’s mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life.
Bernie SiegelBernie Siegel