The dying must often feel this way—steaming along just fine, while on ahead someone has torn up the rails.

About Annie Dillard

Annie Dillard (née Doak; April 30, 1945 – September 15, 2026) was an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and nonfiction. She published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 book Pilgrim at Tinker...

More quotations from Annie Dillard

I couldn't remember how to forget myself. I didn't want to think about myself, to reckon myself in, to deal with myself every livelong minute on top of everything else—but swerve as I might, I couldn't avoid it. I was a boulder blocking my own path. I was a dog barking between my own ears, a barking dog who wouldn't hush. So this was adolescence.

—Annie Dillard

In the Koran, Allah asks, "The heaven and the earth and all in between, thinkest thou I made them in jest?" It's a good question. What do we think of the created universe, spanning an unthinkable void with an unthinkable profusion of forms?… If the giant water bug was not made in jest, was it then made in earnest?

—Annie Dillard

universe earth heaven

If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.

—Annie Dillard

money poverty thrift

I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular… but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive.

—Annie Dillard

purity wildness

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

—Annie Dillard

energy sunlight wind

More quotations tagged with “feelings”

I never stopped loving you. I wanted to. It would have been easier. But I can't turn it off with a switch.

—Abbi Glines in Until The End

love feelings want

You know what he taught me? He taught me to feel more. He taught me to give myself over to feelings. And now that's all I have. I'm swamped by them. I can't breathe because I feel so damn much.

—Ellen Sussman in French Lessons

emotions feelings

Feelings, who needs them? Sometimes they're like a gift, when you feel love or happiness. Sometimes they're a curse.

—John Marsden in The Dead of Night

love happiness feelings curse

The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit.

—Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project

happiness belief effort generosity feelings discipline energy unhappiness selfishness care selflessness lightheartedness

You can't just switch off your feelings because the other person did.

—Sophie Kinsella in Twenties Girl

emotions relationship feelings

History

1 Jan 2016 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

The dying must often feel this way — steaming along just fine, while on ahead someone has torn up the rails.