"Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating."
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Quote collection
Anne Lamott quotes (page 8 of 33)
647 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"If you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses dont go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining."
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"The earth is rocky and full of roots; it's clay, and it seems doomed and polluted, but you dig little holes for the ugly shriveled bulbs, throw in a handful of poppy seeds, and cover it all over, and you know you'll never see it again - it's death and clay and shrivel, and your hands are nicked from the rocks, your nails black with soil."
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"I was raised by my parents to believe that you had a moral obligation to try and save the world. You sent money to the Red Cross, you registered people to vote, you marched in rallies, stood in vigils, picked up litter."
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"What’s the difference between you and God? God never thinks he’s you."
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"Joy is the best makeup."
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"I'm not going to change the way people think about me, but I can say you know what? I'm not going to carry that in my backpack."
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"I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world-present and in awe."
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"Laughter is a bubbly, effervescent form of holiness"
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"And yet, I do believe there is ultimately meaning in the chaos, and also in the doldrums. What I resist is not the truth but when people put a pretty bow on scary things instead of saying, 'This is a nightmare. I hate everything. I’m going to go hide in the garage.'"
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"We're all afraid of the same stuff. Mostly we're afraid that we're secretly not okay, that we're disgusting, or frauds, or about to be diagnosed with cancer. ... We want to teach you how to quiet the yammer ... how you can create comfort, inside and outside, how you can get warm, how you can feed yourself. And even learn to get through silence. ... There is a wilderness inside you, and a banquet. Both. [p. 253]"
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"If you asked me, parents were supposed to affect the life of their child in such a way that the child grows up to be responsible, able to participate in life and in community."
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"Publication is not all that it is cracked up to be. But writing is."
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"This is a very violent place to live, the Earth, and we're a very violent species. Cain is still killing Abel. We see that every day."
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"When we agree to being part of something bigger than our own wired, fixated minds, we are saved."
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"I had NO interest in being a theologian, especially not a Christian, as I had been raised by progressive atheists. We bowed down every morning to the golden calf of the New York Times, Noam Chomsky, Hannah Arendt. I tried to get my parents to respect and nourish me, let alone delight in me, so even though I secretly loved and believed in the Divine Something - Goodness, Good Orderly Direction, Gift of Desperation, the Cosmic Muffin - I wasn't ready yet to commit myself to the study of a higher power."
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"The world is always going to be dangerous, and people get badly banged up, but how can there be more meaning than helping one another stand up in a wind and stay warm?"
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"... one of the immutable laws of being human is that the people who show up are the right people. [p. 65]"
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"The truth of my experience is that we are all a lot more alike than we are different."
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"Or you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, "I hate you, God." That is a prayer too, because it is real, it is truth, and maybe it is the first sincere thought you've had in months."
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