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George MacDonald

George MacDonald Quotes

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Famous George MacDonald Quotes

“And in thy own sermon, thou That the sparrow falls dost allow, It shall not cause me any alarm; For neither so comes the bird to harm, Seeing our Father, thou hast said, Is by the sparrow's dying bed; Therefore it is a blessed place, And the sparrow in high grace.”

SaidFallFatherCausesGraceSeeingDyingBedBirdBlessedHarmSermonsOur FatherAlarmsSparrows
Book:THOMAS WINGFOLD, CURATE + PAUL FABER, SURGEON + THERE AND BACK - The Complete Series: The Curate's Awakening, The Lady's Confession & The Baron's Apprenticeship
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“They are not the best students who are most dependent on books. What can be got out of them is at best only material; a man must build his house for himself.”

MenBookHouseStudyStudentsMaterialsDependentBest Students
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“As to the pure all things are pure, so the common mind sees far more vulgarity in others than the mind developed in genuine refinement.”

MindCommonPureAll ThingsGenuineRefinementVulgarity
Book:The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more
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“It was part of war; men died, more would die, that was past, and what mattered now was the business in hand; those who lived would get on with it. Whatever sorrow was felt, there was no point in talking or brooding about it, much less in making, for form's sake, a parade of it. Better and healthier to forget it, and look to tomorrow.The celebrated British stiff upper lip, the resolve to conceal emotion which is not only embarrassing and useless, but harmful, is just plain commons sense”

MenLooksWarHandsPastFormDiesFeltForgetEmotionTalkingTomorrowSorrowDiedSakeLipsBritishUselessResolveEmbarrassingForget ItArt Of WarNo PointParadesBroodingStiff Upper Lip
Author:George MacDonald
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“A man must learn to love his children, not because they are his, but because they are children, else his love will be scarcely a better thing at last than the party-spirit of the faithful politician.”

MenChildrenLastsSpiritPartyPoliticianFaithfulHis Love
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“For when is the child the ideal child in our eyes and to our hearts? Is it not when with gentle hand he takes his father by the beard, and turns that father's face up to his brothers and sisters to kiss? when even the lovely selfishness of love-seeking has vanished, and the heart is absorbed in loving?”

HeartChildrenHandsEyeFacesTurnsFatherBrotherKissingIdealsSeekingLovelySelfishnessGentleBrothers And SistersBeard
Book:Unspoken Sermons
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“But God lets men have their playthings, like the children they are, that they may learn to distinguish them from true possessions. If they are not learning that he takes them from them, and tries the other way: for lack of them and its misery, they will perhaps seek the true!”

IfsMenWayTryingMayChildrenLet MeMiseryPossession
Book:The World of George Macdonald: Selections from His Works of Fiction
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“Diamond, however, had not been out so late before in all his life, and things looked so strange about him! - just as if he had got into Fairyland, of which he knew quite as much as anybody; for his mother had no money to buy books to set him wrong on the subject.”

IfsBookMotherSubjectsStrangeLateDiamondNo Money
Book:Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
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“I say again, if I cannot draw a horse, I will not write THIS IS A HORSE under what I foolishly meant for one.”

IfsWritingDrawsHorse
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“Some thinkers would feel sorely hampered if at liberty to use no forms but such as existed in nature, or to invent nothing save in accordance with the laws of the world of the senses; but it must not therefore be imagined that they desire escape from the region of law.”

IfsWorldFeelsUseFormLawDesireLibertySensesRegionsThinker
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“There is no cheating in nature and the simple unsought feelings of the soul. There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning.”

MaySoulFeelingsSimpleInvolvedLaysCheatingNo Cheating
Book:The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more
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“Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale.”

ShouldFairytale
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“What distressed me most - more even than my own folly - was the perplexing question, How can beauty and ugliness dwell so near?”

My OwnFollyUgliness
Book:George MacDonald: The Complete Fantasy Collection - 8 Novels & 30+ Short Stories and Fairy Tales (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, Phantastes, The Princess and Curdie, At the Back of the North Wind, Portent, The Lost Princess, Adela Cathcart, Dealings with the Fairies and many more
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“What I would say is this, that the light is not blinding because God would hide, but because the truth is too glorious for our vision.”

LightVisionTruth IsGlorious
Book:The Complete Novels of George Macdonald (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, Wilfrid Cumbermede and many more
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“Where did you get your eyes so blue? Out of the sky as I came through.”

EyeSkyBlueFlightAviation
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“The region belonging to the pure intellect is straitened: the imagination labours to extend its territories, to give it room. She sweeps across the boarders, searching out new lands into which she may guide her plodding brother. The imagination is the light which redeems from the darkness for the eyes of the understanding. Novalis says, 'The imagination is the stuff of the intellect' -affords, that is, the material upon which the intellect works.”

GivingMayLightEyeStuffUnderstandingImaginationRoomsDarknessLandBrotherMaterialsPureIntellectGuidesLabourRegionsBelongingTerritory
Book:The Imagination: And Other Essays
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“Only because uplifted in song, was I able to endure the blaze of the dawn.”

AbleSongEndureUpliftingDawnBlazing
Book:George MacDonald: The Complete Fantasy Collection - 8 Novels & 30+ Short Stories and Fairy Tales (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, Phantastes, The Princess and Curdie, At the Back of the North Wind, Portent, The Lost Princess, Adela Cathcart, Dealings with the Fairies and many more
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“Do you think you love your children better than He who made them? Is not your love what it is because He put it into your heart first? Have you not often been cross with them? Sometimes unjust to them? Whence came the returning love that rose from unknown depths in your being, and swept away the anger and the injustice? You did not create that love. Probably you were not good enough to send for it by prayer. But it came. God sent it. He makes you love your children.”

ThinkingFirstsHeartChildrenMadeSometimesEnoughPrayerLove YouCrossesOur ChildrenRoseDepthInjusticeYour ChildrenGood EnoughUnjustNot Good EnoughSwept AwayLove Your ChildrenReturning Love
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“O Christ, my life, possess me utterly. Take me and make a little Christ of me. If I am anything but thy father's son, 'Tis something not yet from the darkness won. Oh, give me light to live with open eyes. Oh, give me life to hope above all skies.”

IfsGivingLittlesLightEyeFatherChristDarknessSkySonGive MeTake MeOpen Eyes
Book:The Complete Works of George MacDonald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Theological Writings & Essays (Illustrated): The Princess and the Goblin, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, Lilith, England’s Antiphon, David Elginbrod, Malcolm, The Light Princess, The Golden Key and many more
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“A God must have a God for company. And lo! thou hast the Son-God to thy friend. Thou honour'st his obedience, he thy law. Into thy secret life-will he doth see; Thou fold'st him round in live love perfectly- One two, without beginning, without end; In love, life, strength, and truth, perfect without a flaw.”

TwoEndsLawPerfectSecretCompanySonRoundsObedienceLove LifeFlawsHonourFoldsSecret LifeLive LoveLife Strength
Book:A Book of Strife in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul
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