Quotes from The Arm of the Starfish

Madeleine L'Engle ·  288 pages

Rating: (8.5K votes)


“You cannot see the past that did not happen any more than you can foresee the future.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


“If you’re going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can’t pick and choose who’s going to be the sparrow. It’s everybody, and you’re stuck with it.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


“Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


“Rules are made for people, not people for rules,”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


“If you accept any position of authority you have to know when to break or circumvent a rule. It’s the knowing when that’s important.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish



“There always have been and there always will be people who have been corrupted into enjoying any excuse for cruelty.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


“if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


“I can’t do it for love of God, like Tom Tallis, or for heaven’s sake, as Mr. Frost said. But because I love people I have to act according to it—to the fact that I love them.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


“There’s something wrong about trying to heal with a surgeon’s knife.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Arm of the Starfish


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

“A moon of startling brightness rose over the rooftops, lifted on a divine, invisible thread...”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia


“If he had to have strange powers, Aden wished they could have been more like hers. That voodoo voice would have made his life a lot easier; he could have sent certain people (cough Ozzie cough) away with no memory of him.”
― Gena Showalter, quote from Intertwined


“For all I know, the guy is Dracula.”
― Mari Mancusi, quote from Boys that Bite


“A wager?" I repeated.
"Yes," he said, and gave me a slow smile, bright with challenge. ...
"Stake?" I asked cautiously. He was still smiling, an odd sort of smile, hard to define.
"A kiss." My first reaction was outrage, but then I remembered that I was on my way to Court, and that had to be the kind of thing they did at Court. And if I win I don't have to collect. I hesitated only a moment longer, lured by the thought of open sky, and speed, and winning.
"Done," I said.”
― Sherwood Smith, quote from Crown Duel


“You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself—no offense intended.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Foundation's Edge


Interesting books

The Virgin in the Garden
(2.7K)
The Virgin in the Ga...
by A.S. Byatt
What Is to Be Done?
(1.5K)
What Is to Be Done?
by Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Westmark
(4K)
Westmark
by Lloyd Alexander
To Draw Closer To God: A Collection Of Discourses
(4.1K)
To Draw Closer To Go...
by Henry B. Eyring
Summer Lightning
(3.4K)
Summer Lightning
by P.G. Wodehouse
Paparazzi Princess
(3.9K)
Paparazzi Princess
by Jen Calonita

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.