Quotessence
Home / Authors / Donald Miller
Donald Miller

Donald Miller Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsStoriesPeopleThinkingWantKnowsPersonsBelieveBookWorldWritingChristianJesusBeautifulFeelsMenNeedsTryingGivingSometimes

Famous Donald Miller Quotes

“I didnt like being reminded about how self-absorbed i was. I wanted to be over this, done with this. I didnt want to live in a broken world or a broken me. I wasnt trying to weasel out of anything. I just wasnt in the mood of being on the earth that night. I get like that sometimes when it rains, or when i see certain sad movies.”

WorldWantTryingSelfSometimesDoneWantedEarthNightCertainBrokenRainMoodSelf AbsorbedWeaselsBroken WorldSad Movie
Book:Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Create image

“We don't think much about how our love stories will affect the world, but they do. Children learn what's worth living for and what's worth dying for by the stories they watch us live. I want to teach our children how to get scary close, and more, how to be brave. I want to teach them that love is worth what it costs.”

ThinkingWorldWantChildrenStoriesLove IsWatchesTeachDyingCostOur ChildrenBraveScaryLove StoryOur LoveBe BraveWorth Living
Book:Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy
Create image

“I do not believe a person can take two issues from Scripture, those being abortion and gay marriage, and adhere to them as sins, then neglect much of the rest and call himself a fundamentalist or even a conservative. The person who believes the sum of his morality involves gay marriage and abortion alone, and neglects health care and world trade and the environment and loving his neighbor and feeding the poor is, by definition, a theological liberal, because he takes what he wants from Scripture and ignores the rest.”

WorldWantBelievePersonsTwoCareSinPoorIssuesEnvironmentMoralityGayTradeDefinitionsConservativeNeighborScriptureHealth CareAbortionNeglectFeedingGay MarriageTheologicalFundamentalistWorld Trade
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“*I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago... *So soon you will be in that part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. *We get one story, you and I, and one story alone....It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.”

WantPersonsBookMomentsStoriesHandsMightLeftWalkingPagesShiningWhere You AreWalking AwayLeft HandWisps
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“Sometimes when I watch my dog, I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn't read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just IS a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make both her and me happy. It makes me wonder if that was the intention for man, to chase sticks and ducks, to name animals, to create families, and to keep looking back at God to feed off his pleasure at our pleasure.”

IfsThinkingMenWantBookSelfSometimesHelpingStoriesNamesLosesPleasureAnimalWonderWatchesDogSelf HelpSticksIntentionGood LifeDucksLooking BackMy DogLucySelf Help BooksHelp Book
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“Everybody wants to be fancy and new. Nobody wants to be themselves. I mean, maybe people want to be themselves, but they want to be different, with different clothes or shorter hair or less fat. It's a fact. If there was a guy who just liked being himself and didn't want to be anybody else, that guy would be the most different guy in the world and everybody would want to be him.”

PeopleIfsWorldWantMeanDifferentFactsWould BeGuyHairClothesFatsFancyThat GuyDifferent Guys
Book:Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Create image

“As a human, I am flawed in that it is difficult for me to consider others before myself. It feels like I have to fight against this force, this current within me that, more often than not, wants to avoid serious issues and please myself, buy things for myself, feed myself, entertain myself, and all of that.”

WantFeelsHumansFightingForceDifficultIssuesSeriousPleaseCurrentsFlawedSerious Issues
Book:Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Create image

“I've wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgment. We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims instead of grateful participants.”

IfsWantReasonCharacterStoriesFacesMovingLife IsResponsibilityFailingConflictVictimGratefulBreatheAcknowledgeRemarkableInherentThousand YearsBrillianceUnwillingParticipantsAcknowledgment
Book:A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
Create image

“At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay. And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. I don't think there is any better worship than wonder.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWantNeedsStillsEndsFeelingsLyingChanceAnswersWonderMillionsBedLetting GoWorshipOkayMathSillyTheologyThe End Of The Day
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“More than my questions about the efficacy of social actions were my questions about my own motives. Do i want social justice for the oppressed or do i jusy want to be known as a socially active person? I spend 95 percent of my time thinking about myself anyway. I dont have to watch the evening news to see the world is bad, i only have to look at myself. I am not brow beating here, i am only saying that true charge , true living giving, God honoring change would have to start with the individual. I was the very problem i had been protesting. I wanted to make a sign that read “I am the problem”

ThinkingWorldWantGivingLooksPersonsProblemActionWantedIndividualSocialJusticeMy OwnKnownWatchesNewsPercentSocial JusticeActiveEveningMotiveMy TimeOppressedBrowsHere I AmEfficacySocial Action
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“But playing your music as loud as you want and coming home drunk aren't real life. Real life, it turns out, is diapers and lawnmowers, decks that need painting, a wife that needs to be listened to, kids that need to be taught right from wrong, a checkbook, an oil change, a sunset behind a mountain, laughter at a kitchen table, too much wine, a chipped tooth, and a screaming child.”

WantNeedsChildrenRealHomeKidsTurnsBehindsToo MuchWifeTaughtPaintingMountainLaughterTablesWineOilReal LifeTeethDrunkLoudKitchenSunsetComing HomeDeckDiapersKitchen TableOil Change
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“Here's the truth about telling stories with your life. It's going to sound like a great idea, and you're going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you're not going to want to do it. It's like that with writing books, and it's like that with life. People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.”

PeopleWantWritingBookIdeasStoriesHappensPainJoySoundCostExcitedWorking ItWriting A BookGreat IdeaMake It HappenTelling Stories
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“When I walked into the Christian section of a bookstore, the message was clear: Faith is something you do alone. Rick does not have much tolerance for people living alone. He's like Bill Clinton in that he feels everyone's pain. If Rick thinks somebody is lonely, he can't sleep at night. He wants us all to live with each other and play nice so he can get some rest. Tortured soul.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantFeelsDoeSoulPlayChristianPainNightCommunitySleepClearNiceMessagesLonelyBillsClintonToleranceSectionsWant UBookstoresCan't SleepLiving AloneTortured Souls
Book:Miller 3-in-1: Blue Like Jazz, Through Painted Deserts, Searching for God
Create image

“And there is something profoundly humbling about knowing God. I’m not talking about the trinket God or the genie-in-a-lamp God. I mean the God who invented the tree in my front yard, the beauty of my sweetheart, the taste of a blueberry, the violence of a river at flood. There are a lot of religious trends that would have us controlling God, telling us that if we do this that and the other, God will jump through our hoops like a monkey. But this other God, this real God, is awesome and strong, all-encompassing and passionate, and for reasons I will never understand, he wants to father us.”

IfsWantMeanRealReasonFatherStrongReligiousTalkingKnowingViolenceTreeFrontsTasteRiversPassionateGods WillTrendsFloodYardsMonkeysLampsKnowing GodNot TalkingHumblingSweetheartGeniesBlueberriesTrinketsMy Sweetheart
Author:Donald Miller
Create image

“I kept imagining these people, just living their daily lives, and then having them suddenly ended in unjust tragedy. When we watch the news, we grieve all of this, but when we go to the movies, we want more of it. Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in. We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller.”

PeopleThinkingWantStoriesRealizingWatchesGreatnessMastersConflictNewsTragedyEmbraceGrievingDaily LifeUnjustStorytellerUnwilling
Book:A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
Create image

“If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.”

IfsThinkingWantFeelsYearsEndsStoriesHomeWantedBeautifulRememberGuyRecordsSawsWeekCryTruth IsThousand YearsTestingVolvo
Book:A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
Create image