Annie Dillard

“I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.”

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.”

“You don't have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary.”

“Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.”

“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place... give it, give it all, give it now.”

“Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”

“The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart.”

“Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery.”

“The world is wider than the mind of its keeper.”

“We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed.”

“You can't test courage cautiously.”

“There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.”

“We are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we are most awake.”