Madeleine L'Engle (placeholder)

“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability…. To be alive is to be vulnerable.”

“The world of science lives fairly comfortably with paradox. We know that light is a wave, and also that light is a particle. The discoveries made in the infinitely small world of particle physics indicate randomness and chance, and I do not find it any more difficult to live with the paradox of a universe of randomness and chance and a universe of pattern and purpose than I do with light as a wave and light as a particle. Living with contradiction is nothing new to the human being.”

“If I could comprehend God completely, God wouldn’t be worth bothering about. I’m finite, God is infinite; the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. But we get enough glimpses.”

“The deeper and richer a personality is, the more full it is of paradox and contradiction. It is only a shallow character who offers us no problems of contrast.”

“We tend to defend vigorously things that in our deepest hearts we are not quite certain about. If we are certain of something we know, it doesn’t need defending!”

“Perhaps the times I seem most sure are the times I am most unsure. A good deal of the time I simply act, with great positiveness and very little assurance. I have all the arrogance of utter insecurity.”

“Thinking I’m a moron gives people something to feel smug about… Why should I disillusion them?”

I love the Time books that she wrote for children, and also Penguins and Golden Calves, which she wrote for adults. She has a neat way of weaving science and art together in her writing.

she wrote at least one adult novel, too. it is called a severed wasp. i have no idea anymore what it was about, but i think it was kinda sad. but, good!