Quotes from A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L'Engle ·  211 pages

Rating: (749.1K votes)


“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. - Mrs. Whatsit”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“I do not know everything; still many things I understand.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“The only way to cope with something deadly serious is to try to treat it a little lightly.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Like and equal are not the same thing at all.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time



“People are more than just the way they look.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“If you aren't unhappy sometimes you don't know how to be happy.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Thinking I'm a moron gives people something to feel smug about," Charles Wallace said. "Why should I disillusion them?”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Only a fool is not afraid.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time



“They are very young. And on their earth, as they call it, they never communicate with other planets. They revolve about all alone in space."
"Oh," the thin beast said. "Aren't they lonely?”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“We do not know what things look like.
We know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing,this seeing. -Aunt Beast”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point. French. Pascal. The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Qui plussait, plus se tait. French, you know. The more a man knows, the less he talks.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time



“Euripedes. Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Experiment is the mother of knowledge.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Calvin said, "Do you know that this is the first time I've seen you without your glasses?"

"I'm blind as a bat without them. I'm near-sighted, like father."

"Well, you know what, you've got dream-boat eyes," Calvin said. "Listen, you go right on wearing your glasses. I don't think I want anybody else to see what gorgeous eyes you have.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“A book, too, can be a star, “explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“It seemed to travel with her, to sweep her aloft in the power of song, so that she was moving in glory among the stars, and for a moment she, too, felt that the words Darkness and Light had no meaning, and only this melody was real.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time



“Have you ever tried to get to your feet with a sprained dignity?”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it? Yes. Mrs. Whatsit said. You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“It was a dark and stormy night.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Meg, don't you think you'd make a better adjustment to life if you faced facts?"
I do face facts," Meg said.
They're lots easier to face than people, I can tell you.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Love. That was what she had that IT did not have.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time



“It was the same way with silence. This was more than silence. A deaf person can feel vibrations. Here there was nothing to feel.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“Itt iss Eevill…"
"What is going to happen?"
"Wee wwill cconnttinnue tto ffightt!"…
"And we’re not alone, you know, children," came Mrs.Whatsit, the comforter. "…some of the best fighters have come from your own planet…"
"Who have our fighters been?" Calvin asked.
"Oh, you must know them, dear," Mrs.Whatsit said. Mrs.Who’s spectacles shone out at them triumphantly.
"And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


“I don't know if they're really like everybody else, or if they're able to pretend they are.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from A Wrinkle in Time


About the author

Madeleine L'Engle
Born place: in New York City, New York, The United States
Born date November 29, 1918
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“People who are rich, successful, and beautiful may well go through life relying on their natural gifts.”
― Philip Yancey, quote from The Jesus I Never Knew


“I am beginning to think that love itself is never wrong. It is what love can drive people to do that is the problem.”
― Robin LaFevers, quote from Mortal Heart


“She could recall almost nothing of them. She tried a thousand times, but for the greater part that section of her memory was as smooth and numb as scar tissue. Sometimes, just sometimes, she convinced herself that she could remember stray images or impressions, but she could not describe them properly or make sense of them.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Face Like Glass


“Whenever I needed a reassuring touch, Tuesday was there. He was my miracle dog. I already loved him and depended on him more than any other animal I'd ever known- and most other people, too.”
― Luis Carlos Montalván, quote from Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him


“La Vérité n'a pas de sentier, et c'est cela sa beauté : elle est vivante. Une chose morte peut avoir un sentier menant à elle, car elle est statique. Mais lorsque vous voyez que la vérité est vivante, mouvante, qu'elle n'a pas de lieu où se reposer, qu'aucun temple, aucune mosquée ou église, qu'aucune religion, qu'aucun maître ou philosophe, bref que rien ne peut vous y conduire . alors vous verrez aussi que cette chose vivante est ce que vous êtes en toute réalité : elle est votre colère, votre brutalité, votre violence, votre désespoir. Elle est l'agonie et la douleur que vous vivez. La vérité est en la compréhension de tout cela, vous ne pouvez le comprendre qu'en sachant le voir dans votre vie. Il est impossible de le voir à travers uneidéologie, à travers un écran de mots, à travers l'espoir et la peur.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti, quote from Freedom from the Known


Interesting books

Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible
(12.8K)
Facing Your Giants:...
by Max Lucado
Monster
(7K)
The Broom of the System
(16.4K)
The Broom of the Sys...
by David Foster Wallace
Sky on Fire
(9.4K)
Sky on Fire
by Emmy Laybourne
Cross and Burn
(4.1K)
Cross and Burn
by Val McDermid
Treason
(6.4K)
Treason
by Orson Scott Card

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.