Inspirational Quotes by George MacDonald
“If we will but let our God and Father work His will with us, there can be no limit to His enlargement of our existence”
“There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.”
topics: wisdom
“A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.”
― George MacDonald ,
from Lilith
topics: freedom
“The world...is full of resurrections... Every night that folds us up in darkness is a death; and those of you that have been out early, and have seen the first of the dawn, will know it - the day rises out of the night like a being that has burst its tomb and escaped into life.”
― George MacDonald ,
from The Seaboard Parish
“Olmak ya da olmamak, işte bütün mesele bu! Düşüncemizin katlanması mı güzel Zalim kaderin yumruklarına, oklarına Yoksa diretip bela denizlerine karşı Dur, yeter demesi mi? Ölmek, uyumak sadece! Düşünün ki uyumakla yalnız Bitebilir bütün acıları yüreğin, Çektiği bütün kahırlar insanoğlunun. Uyumak, ama düş görebilirsin uykuda, o kötü. Çünkü, o ölüm uykularında Sıyrıldığımız zaman yaşamak kaygısından Ne düşler görebilir insan, düşünmeli bunu. Bu düşüncedir felaketleri yaşanır yapan. Yoksa kim dayanabilir zamanın kırbacına? Zorbanın kahrına, gururunun çiğnenmesine Sevgisinin kepaze edilmesine Kanunların bu kadar yavaş Yüzsüzlüğün bu kadar çabuk yürümesine Kötülere kul olmasına iyi insanın Bir bıçak saplayıp göğsüne kurtulmak varken? Kim ister bütün bunlara katlanmak Ağır bir hayatın altında inleyip terlemek Ölümden sonraki bir şeyden korkmasa O kimsenin gidip de dönmediği bilinmez dünya Ürkütmese yüreğini? Bilmediğimiz belalara atılmaktansa Çektiklerine razı etmese insanları? Bilinç böyle korkak ediyor hepimizi: Düşüncenin soluk ışığı bulandırıyor Yürekten gelenin doğal rengini. Ve nice büyük, yiğitçe atılışlar Yollarını değiştirip bu yüzden Bir iş, bir eylem olma gücünü yitiriyorlar. W. Shakespeare / Hamlet”
“HAMLET: I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? GUILDENSTERN: My lord, I cannot. HAMLET: I pray you. GUILDENSTERN: Believe me, I cannot. HAMLET: I do beseech you. GUILDENSTERN: I know no touch of it, my lord. HAMLET: It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with our fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops. GUILDENSTERN: But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill. HAMLET: Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass, and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.”
“I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space.”
“It is when people do wrong things wilfully that they are the more likely to do them again.”
“What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by. Richard loves Richard; that is, I and I. Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am. Then fly! What, from myself? Great reason why: Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself? Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good That I myself have done unto myself? O, no! Alas, I rather hate myself For hateful deeds committed by myself. I am a villain. Yet I lie. I am not. Fool, of thyself speak well. Fool, do not flatter: My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain. Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree; Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree; All several sins, all used in each degree, Throng to the bar, crying all, “Guilty! guilty!” I shall despair. There is no creature loves me, And if I die no soul will pity me. And wherefore should they, since that I myself Find in myself no pity to myself?”
“Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool out of you that you will know yourself for one, and begin to be wise.”
“...it is so silly of people to fancy that old age means crookedness and witheredness and feebleness and sticks and spectacles and rheumatism and forgetfulness! It is so silly! Old age has nothing whatever to do with all that. The right old age means strength and beauty and mirth and courage and clear eyes and strong painless limbs.”
“As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy.”
― George MacDonald ,
from Phantastes
“You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself. (Quoted by C.S.Lewis in Mere Christianity)”
topics: expectation
“It is not, nor it cannot, come to good, But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.”
“He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.”
topics: honor
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George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.
Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."
Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.
MacDonald grew up influenced by his Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of Calvinism. But MacDonald never felt comfortable with some aspects of Calvinist doctrine; indeed, legend has it that when the doctrine of predestination was first explained to him, he burst into tears (although assured that he was one of the elect). Later novels, such as Robert Falconer and Lilith, show a distaste for the idea that God's electing love is limited to some and denied to others.