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Annie Dillard

13 quotes

Annie Dillard is proof that you do not need celebrity to say something worth remembering. Their thinking spans from Age to Alone, revealing a mind that refused to stay in one lane. Browse 14 quotes by Annie Dillard that cover ground from Age, Alone, Time, Religion, and Nature. Perhaps their most recognizable line: "There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind."

“People love pretty much the same things best. A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all.”

— Annie Dillard

Alone

All Quotes by Annie Dillard

“You can't test courage cautiously.”

— Annie Dillard

Courage

“Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.”

— Annie Dillard

Imagination

“As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker.”

— Annie Dillard

Beauty

“A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.”

— Annie Dillard

Time

“Buddhism notes that it is always a mistake to think your soul can go it alone.”

— Annie Dillard

Alone

“The surest sign of age is loneliness.”

— Annie Dillard

Age

“People love pretty much the same things best. A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all.”

— Annie Dillard

Alone

“It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator, our very self-consciousness, is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution.”

— Annie Dillard

Birthday

“There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable.”

— Annie Dillard

Age

“I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.”

— Annie Dillard

Education

“It's a little silly to finally learn how to write at this age. But I long ago realized I was secretly sincere.”

— Annie Dillard

Age

“There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind.”

— Annie Dillard

Nature

“Eskimo: 'If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?' Priest: 'No, not if you did not know.' Eskimo: 'Then why did you tell me?'”

— Annie Dillard

God