Quote collection
49 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don't want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It's not healthy."
"There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my Son though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that."
"In my dream the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination. And then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand."
"I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts, but they needed constant attention and one day I decided I had better things to do."
"I like geography best, he said, because your mountains & rivers know the secret. Pay no attention to boundaries."
"He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time."
"You're the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said you too & we decided we'd know each other a long time."
"These are little packets of light and you need to plant them early in the year and remember to mark where they were because lots of times they look like weeds in the beginning and it's not until later that you see how beautiful they really are."
"We went to a church that had missionaries who'd come back once a year from Fiji & give talks. I remember one of them saying it was very hard work telling people they were going to lose their everlasting souls if they didn't shape up. I pictured people sitting on the beach listening to this sweaty man all dressed in black telling them they were going to burn in hell & them thinking this was good fun, these scary stories this guy was telling them & afterwards, they'd all go home & eat mango & fish & they'd play Monopoly & laugh & laugh & they'd go to bed & wake up the next day & do it all again."
"There are some days when no matter what I say it feels like I'm far away in another country & whoever is doing the translating has had far too much to drink."
"You may not remember the time you let me go first. Or the time you dropped back to tell me it wasn't that far to go. Or the time you waited at the crossroads for me to catch up. You may not remember any of those, but I do and this is what I have to say to you: Today, no matter what it takes, we ride home together."
"The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it"
"There really is only one story that you need to tell as a scientist or a technologist. It's Prometheus stealing fire. That's it. That's what we do as scientists or technologists."
"I've read a lot of books, so I know bunches of stuff that sounds like it could be true."
"If you're right & I'm not, I'm going to be hell to live with, she said. So, you better think about that next time you want to be right."
"I am only strong enough for a life of partial virtue."
"Wanting him to come back before anyone notices part of the world has not moved since he left."
"Empty Spaces:After his father died he carried his life more gently & left an empty space for the birds & other creatures."
"I used to believe my father about everything but then I had children myself & now I see how much stuff you make up just to keep yourself from going crazy."
"The birds brought seeds & flowers & bits of brightly colored string & placed them in her hair while she slept so she would remember the wild joy of spring when she finally awoke."