Quotes from Beneath a Marble Sky

John Shors ·  344 pages

Rating: (12.6K votes)


“Never deny yourself love, my child. For to deny love is to deny God's greatest gift. And who are we to deny God?”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“Loved ones are sometimes taken from us, either by death or other circumstances outside our control. Yes, we should lament their departure and yes, we should pray for them often. But we shouldn't dwell so deeply upon such vacancies that life itself becomes empty.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“Many fear death. But I do not. For I've tasted the oneness we call love. Death cannot steal it. Nor temper it. No, I'll take my love with me, wherever I travel. And it shall endure.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“without you there is only me, and with you there is us.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“I wondered then why children played so in the river, but adults ceased to see it with the same eyes. Why couldn't we embrace such simple joys?”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky



“Do the strong cry every night for a month? she asked softly.
When they need to, I countered, clasping her hand. Women, Arjumand, women are taught that there's no strength in our tears. But why are one's tears powerless, if those tears lead to insight, or a sense of peace?”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“Ultimately, my love saved me, for my love gave me strength. At night, when sleep was sunwilling to rescue me, I gritted my teeth and devoured my fondest memories.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“For Breezes remind me of kisses. And kisses can be eternal.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“Father once told me that would-be lovers were similar to mountains. Two peaks, wonderfully akin and compatible in every way, may rise to the clouds but never witness each other's majesty because of the space between them. Like a man and a woman from different cities, they would never find each other. Or, if the peaks were blessed, as my parents had been, they might be two mountains of the same range and could bask in each other's company forever.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


“Does an iris seek to repay the sun which gave it life? No. The mere beauty of the iris is tenfold thanks enough for each day the sun can see the wonder it created.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky



“Does an iris,” he asked, tracing such a flower on the wall, “seek to repay the sun which gave it life? No, the mere beauty of the iris is tenfold thanks enough, for each day the sun can see the wonder it created.”
― John Shors, quote from Beneath a Marble Sky


About the author

John Shors
Born place: in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, The United States
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Popular quotes

“Let it never be said that you crept into the crypt, crapped, and crept out again.”
― Winston S. Churchill, quote from Churchill: The Power of Words


“He did not wish to be formal. He wished to sweep her into his arms and welcome her with a kiss that would speak all the things his heart felt.”
― Kim Vogel Sawyer, quote from Waiting for Summer's Return


“Eventually, I developed my own image of teh "befriending" impulse behind my depression. Imagine that from early in my life, a friendly figure, standing a block away, was trying to get my attention by shouting my name, wanting to teach me some hard but healing truths about myself. But I-- fearful of what I might hear or arrogantly trying to live wihtout help or simply too busy with my ideas and ego and ethics to bother-- ignored teh shouts and walked away.

So this figure, still with friendly intent, came closer and shouted more loudly, but AI kept walking. Ever closer it came, close enough to tap me on the shoulder, but I walked on. Frustrated by my unresponsiveness, the figure threw stones at my back, then struck me with a stick, still wanting simply to get my attention. But despite teh pain, I kept walking away.

Over teh years, teh befriending intent of this figure never disapppeared but became obscured by the frustration cuased by my refusal to turn around. Since shouts and taps, stones and sticks had failed to do the trick, there was only one thing left: drop the nuclear bomb called depression on me, not with the intent to kill but as a last-ditch effort to get me to turn and ask the simple question, "What do you want?" When I was finally able to make the turn-- and start to absorb and act on the self-knowledge that then became available to me-- I began to get well.

The figure calling to me all those years was, I believe, what Thomas Merton calls "true self." This is not the ego self that wants to inflate us (or deflate us, another from of self-distortion), not the intellectual self that wants to hover above the mess of life in clear but ungrounded ideas, not the ethical self that wants to live by some abstract moral code. It is the self-planted in us by the God who made us in God's own image-- the self that wants nothing more, or less, than for us to be who we were created to be.

True self is true friend. One ignores or rejects such friendship only at one's peril.”
― Parker J. Palmer, quote from Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation


“I was always deeply impressed by a scene from the old black-and-white film Les enfants du paradis. It’s the last shot, where the despairing Baptiste is running after his great love Garance and finally loses her in the commotion of a street carnival. He’s overwhelmed, he can’t get through, he’s surrounded and shoved by the laughing, dancing crowd he’s stumbling through. An unhappy, confused man among joyful people who are exuberantly celebrating”
― Nicolas Barreau, quote from The Ingredients of Love


“If you became mine, I wouldn’t let you go.” His words were clipped, as if he was biting back frenzy. “Understand me, if I’m your first lover— I will be your last.” The ringing tone of finality chilled me. “And I would kill any man who thought to touch what was mine.”
― Kresley Cole, quote from The Professional: Part 2


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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.

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