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Barbara Kingsolver Quotes

Writer
A choir of seedlings arching their necks out of rotted tree stumps, sucking life out of death. I am the forest's conscience, but remember, the forest eats itself and lives forever.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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Sugar, it's no parade but you'll get down the street one way or another, so you'd just as well throw your shoulders back and pick up the pace.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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Every life is different because you passed this way and touched history.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That’s about it. Right now I'm living in that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides.
From Animal Dreams
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In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up its feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves.
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Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing blow with his sky-blue mouth as he passed.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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I wonder that religion can live or die on the strength of a faint, stirring breeze. The scent trail shifts, causing the predator to miss the pounce. One god draws in the breath of life and rises; another god expires.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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She told him television was a bad influence. Probably she was right. Like those white birds he's been seeing outside the window, it flashes its wings and promises whatever you want, even before you knew you wanted it.
From Pigs in Heaven
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Awareness is everything. Hallie once pointed out to me that people worry a lot more about the eternity *after* their deaths than the eternity that happened before they were born. But it's the same amount of infinity, rolling out in all directions from where we stand.
From Animal Dreams
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Listen: being dead is not worse than being alive. It is different though. You could say the view is larger.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence. I can understand a wrathful God who'd just as soon dangle us all from a hook. And I can understand a tender, unprejudiced Jesus. But I could never quite feature the two of them living in the same house. You wind up walking on eggshells, never knowing which... is at home at the moment.
From The Poisonwood Bible
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What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness.
From Animal Dreams
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There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physical manifestation of unbearable grief.
From Animal Dreams
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What is new is that we know so very much about the world, or at least the part of it that is most picturesquely exploding on any given day, that we're left with a desperate sense that all of it is exploding, all the time. As far as I can tell, that is the intent and purpose of television news. We see so much, understand so little, and are simultaneously told so much about What We Think, as a populace polled minute by minute, that is begins to feel like an extraneous effort to listen at all to our hearts.
From Small Wonder
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The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A choir of seedlings arching their necks out of rotted tree stumps, sucking life out of death. I am the forest's conscience, but remember, the forest eats itself and lives forever.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sugar, it's no parade but you'll get down the street one way or another, so you'd just as well throw your shoulders back and pick up the pace.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Every life is different because you passed this way and touched history.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That’s about it. Right now I'm living in that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up its feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing blow with his sky-blue mouth as he passed.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I wonder that religion can live or die on the strength of a faint, stirring breeze. The scent trail shifts, causing the predator to miss the pounce. One god draws in the breath of life and rises; another god expires.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She told him television was a bad influence. Probably she was right. Like those white birds he's been seeing outside the window, it flashes its wings and promises whatever you want, even before you knew you wanted it.
From Pigs in Heaven
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Awareness is everything. Hallie once pointed out to me that people worry a lot more about the eternity *after* their deaths than the eternity that happened before they were born. But it's the same amount of infinity, rolling out in all directions from where we stand.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Listen: being dead is not worse than being alive. It is different though. You could say the view is larger.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence. I can understand a wrathful God who'd just as soon dangle us all from a hook. And I can understand a tender, unprejudiced Jesus. But I could never quite feature the two of them living in the same house. You wind up walking on eggshells, never knowing which... is at home at the moment.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physical manifestation of unbearable grief.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What is new is that we know so very much about the world, or at least the part of it that is most picturesquely exploding on any given day, that we're left with a desperate sense that all of it is exploding, all the time. As far as I can tell, that is the intent and purpose of television news. We see so much, understand so little, and are simultaneously told so much about What We Think, as a populace polled minute by minute, that is begins to feel like an extraneous effort to listen at all to our hearts.
From Small Wonder
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A choir of seedlings arching their necks out of rotted tree stumps, sucking life out of death. I am the forest's conscience, but remember, the forest eats itself and lives forever.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sugar, it's no parade but you'll get down the street one way or another, so you'd just as well throw your shoulders back and pick up the pace.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Every life is different because you passed this way and touched history.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That’s about it. Right now I'm living in that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up its feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me, or paused at least to strike a glancing blow with his sky-blue mouth as he passed.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I wonder that religion can live or die on the strength of a faint, stirring breeze. The scent trail shifts, causing the predator to miss the pounce. One god draws in the breath of life and rises; another god expires.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She told him television was a bad influence. Probably she was right. Like those white birds he's been seeing outside the window, it flashes its wings and promises whatever you want, even before you knew you wanted it.
From Pigs in Heaven
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Awareness is everything. Hallie once pointed out to me that people worry a lot more about the eternity *after* their deaths than the eternity that happened before they were born. But it's the same amount of infinity, rolling out in all directions from where we stand.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Listen: being dead is not worse than being alive. It is different though. You could say the view is larger.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence. I can understand a wrathful God who'd just as soon dangle us all from a hook. And I can understand a tender, unprejudiced Jesus. But I could never quite feature the two of them living in the same house. You wind up walking on eggshells, never knowing which... is at home at the moment.
From The Poisonwood Bible
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physical manifestation of unbearable grief.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What is new is that we know so very much about the world, or at least the part of it that is most picturesquely exploding on any given day, that we're left with a desperate sense that all of it is exploding, all the time. As far as I can tell, that is the intent and purpose of television news. We see so much, understand so little, and are simultaneously told so much about What We Think, as a populace polled minute by minute, that is begins to feel like an extraneous effort to listen at all to our hearts.
From Small Wonder
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.
From Animal Dreams
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote