Quotes from A Light in the Window

Jan Karon ·  480 pages

Rating: (19.7K votes)


“I believe that's when God first started speaking to my heart--the very day I started speaking to His!”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


“Love is an actual need, an urgent requirement of the heart," he read aloud from an old essay on marriage that he found in his files.

"Every properly constituted human being who entertains an appreciation of loneliness...and looks forward to happiness and content feels the necessity of loving. Without it, life is unfinished...”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


“Was he willing to blend into the life of another human being for the rest of his days, and have hers blend into his? That, of course, was the Bible’s bottom line on marriage: one flesh. Not separate entities, not two autonomous beings merely coming together at dinnertime or brushing past one another in the hallway, holding on to their singleness, guarding against invasion. One flesh!" (p. 207).”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


“Oh, Timothy, how could you not have loved someone all these years? Loving absolutely seeps from you, like a spring that bubbles up in a meadow.” “Maybe you can convince me of that, but I doubt it. I find myself niggardly and self-seeking, hard as stone somewhere inside. Look how I’ve treated you.” “Yes, but you could never deceive me into thinking you were hard as stone. You’ve always betrayed your tenderness to me, something in your face, your eyes, your voice ...” “Then I have no cover with you?” “Very little.” “ ‘Violet only wanted a friend,’ ” he quoted, “ ‘but every time she tried to have one, she did something that chased them away.”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


“My work is awfully labored just now. Sometimes it has the most wondrous life of its own, it fairly pulls me along—rather like wind surfing! At other times, it drags and mopes, so that I despair of ever writing another word or drawing another picture. I’ve found that if one keeps pushing along during the mopes, out will flash the most exhilarating thought or idea—a way of doing something that I had never seen before—and then, one is off again, and hold on to your hat!”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window



“We are not necessarily doubting,” said C. S. Lewis, “that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” He”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


“graced lawn parties at Fernbank.” Hoppy stood and applauded.”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


“is asked of us in our time,’ the writer said, ‘is that we break open our blocked caves and find each other. Nothing less will heal the anguished spirit, nor release the heart to act in love.”
― Jan Karon, quote from A Light in the Window


About the author

Jan Karon
Born place: in Lenoir, North Carolina, The United States
Born date January 1, 1937
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Popular quotes

“Okay, that's intensely interesting," Duvall said. "So you're a priest of the Forshan religion? Which schism?"
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― John Scalzi, quote from Redshirts


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― Ian McDonald, quote from River of Gods


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― Julian Barnes, quote from Flaubert's Parrot


“Look, every government has a need to frighten its population, and one way of doing that is to shroud its working in mystery. The idea that a government has to be shrouded in mystery is something that goes back to Herodotus [ancient Greek historian]. You read Herodotus, and he describes how the Medes and others won their freedom by struggle, and then they lost their freedom when the institution of royalty was invented to create a cloak of mystery around power. See, the idea behind royalty was that there’s this other species of individuals who are beyond the norm and who the people are not supposed to understand. That’s the standard way you cloak and protect power: you make it look mysterious and secret, above the ordinary person―otherwise why should anybody accept it? Well, they’re willing to accept it out of fear that some great enemies are about to destroy them, and because of that they’ll cede their authority to the Lord, or the King, or the President or something, just to protect themselves. That’s the way governments work―that’s the way any system of power works―and the secrecy of the system is part of it.”
― Noam Chomsky, quote from Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky


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