In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well, and were it not for my absolute faith in the loving forgiveness of my Lord I could not call on him to come.
Interpretation
Our ultimate judgment in life will center on how well we loved others, reflecting our moral character.
This quote by Madeleine L'Engle emphasizes the importance of love in the human experience. As we approach the end of our lives, the measure of our worth will not be based on material achievements or success, but rather on the love we shared and received. L'Engle expresses a profound sense of humility and the need for grace, suggesting that none of us will be judged favorably without the assurance of divine love and forgiveness.
In practice
In a speech about compassion and humanity, one might reference this quote to emphasize the importance of love.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
The bowed head, the buried face. She is silent, she will never speak, never forgive, never reach a hand, never leave this frozen present tense. All waits, suspended. Suspended the autumn trees, the autumn sky, anonymous people. A blackbird, poor fool, sings out of season from the willows by the lake. A flight of pigeons over the houses; fragments of freedom, hazard, an anagram made flesh. And somewhere the stinging smell of burning leaves.
One cannot in the nature of things expect a little tree that has been turned into a club to put forth leaves.
My only fear of death is reincarnation
Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.
It's hard for me to view Baltimore outside the context of what Baltimore has always been in my mind: a violent place.
To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.
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