Barbara O Connor Quotes

And then she got a bad, bad feeling because she realized she had been wrong.
You can fool a person.
You can fool a dog.
You can fool a cat or a horse or a teacher or a friend.
But you cannot ever fool a heart. ~ Barbara O'Connor

Ave Maria

Ave Maria! Maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden's pleading
from these rocks, stark and wild,
my prayer shall be wafted to thee.
we shall sleep safely till morning,
though men be ever so cruel.
o Maiden, see a maiden's distress,
O Mother, hear a suppliant child.

Ave Maria, undefiled!
When we upon this rock lie down
to slumber, and they protection covers us,
The hard stone will seem soft to us.
If Though smilest, the scent of roses will float
Through this murky cavern,
O Mother, hear a child's petition,
O maiden, 'tis a maid that calls!

Ave Maria, Maiden pure,
the demons of the earth and air,
drien forth by thy gracious glance
cannot stay here with us.
we will camly bow to fate
Since they holy comfort hovers over us;
Mayest though be favourably inclined to the maiden,
To the child that pleads for her father! ~ Barbara Bonney

Word is you heard the Windigo too."
I did. The difference is I'm ready for the son of a bitch."
Cork O'Connor ~ William Kent Krueger

Our gardening forebears meant watermelon to be the juicy, barefoot taste of a hot summer's end, just as a pumpkin is the trademark fruit of late October. Most of us accept the latter, and limit our jack-o'-latern activities to the proper botanical season. Waiting for a watermelon is harder. It's tempting to reach for melons, red peppers, tomatoes, and other late-summer delights before the summer even arrives. But it's actually possible to wait, celebrating each season when it comes, not fretting about its being absent at all other times because something else good is at hand. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

the Sunshine and Shadow design. The Amish A Devoted Christian's Prayer Book contained the prayer, "We pray, O Holy Father, that we might leave behind the night of sin and guilt and ever walk in the shining light of Thy wondrous grace, and cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light, and walk honestly as in the day. ~ Barbara Cameron

[Sandra Day O'Connor] is a justice whose graciousness and sense of duty fuels her continued service, even agreeing to serve more than six months after her retirement date. ~ Patrick Leahy

I'm one that believes that Samuel Alito appointment on the Supreme Court is a pivotal appointment. And because he replace Sandra Day O'Connor and because she was the fifth vote on 148 cases, you well could be a very key and decisive vote. ~ Dianne Feinstein

The world was made for the dead. Think of all the dead there are ... There's a million times more dead than living and the dead are dead a million times longer than the living are alive ... ~ Flannery O'Connor

An old story is told about Rabia of Basra, an eighth-century Sufi mystic who was seen running through the streets of her city one day carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she said she wanted to burn down the rewards of paradise with the torch and put out the fires of hell with the water, because both blocked the way to God, 'O, Allah,' Rabia prayed, 'if I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your Own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.'

In Christian tradition this comes under the heading of unconditional love, though it is usually understood as the kind of love God exercises toward humans instead of the other way around. Now, thanks to a Muslim mystic from Iraq, I have a new way of understanding what it means to love God unconditionally. Whenever I am tempted to act from fear of divine punishment or hope of divine reward, Rabia leans over from here religion into mine and empties a bucket of water on my head. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor

I am deeply honored to have been nominated for a position on the Supreme Court. And I an humbled to have been nominated for the seat that is now held by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. ~ Samuel Alito

Wise Blood has reached the age of ten and is still alive. My critical powers are just sufficient to determine this, and I am gratified to be able to say it. The book was written with zest and, if possible, it should be read that way. It is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui, and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death. Wise Blood was written by an author congenitally innocent of theory, but one with certain preoccupations. That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for some readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence. For them, Hazel Motes's integrity lies in his trying with such vigor to get rid of the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of his mind. For the author, Hazel's integrity lies in his not being able to do so. Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen.

(Preface to second edition, 1962) ~ Flannery O'Connor

Quinnipeague in August was a lush green place where inchworms dangled from trees whose leaves were so full that the eaten parts were barely missed. Mornings meant 'thick o' fog' that caught on rooftops and dripped, blurring weathered gray shingles while barely muting the deep pink of rosa rugosa or the hydrangea's blue. Wood smoke filled the air on rainy days, pine sap on sunny ones, and wafting through it all was the briny smell of the sea. ~ Barbara Delinsky

I always thought the allusive "O" that girls always talked about was an urban legend, but Connor is quickly turning me into a believer. ~ Devon Herrera

One of the awful things about writing when you are a Christian is that for you the ultimate reality is the Incarnation, the present reality is the Incarnation, and nobody believes in the Incarnation; that is, nobody in your audience. My audience are the people who think God is dead. At least these are the people I am conscious of writing for. ~ Flannery O'Connor

I liked to pretend I was noble, to tell myself I wouldn't draw someone into the fire, but threatened with the safety of the people I loved, I wouldn't even hesitate. ~ Lindsey Fairleigh

The silence became palpable and merciless in its depths. The only sound came from my car's radio. The Temptations towed me to tears. ~ Billy O'Connor

She couldn't quite see herself in it. When they were done, I read the Shakespeare sonnet that begins "Fear no more the heat o' the Sun," partly because it was appropriate to the occasion and one of the most beautiful poems in the language, but also because I hoped it might hide from my loved ones the fact that I myself had nothing to say, that while part of me was here with them on this beloved shore, another part was wandering, as it had been for months, in a barren, uninhabited landscape not unlike the one in my dream. I realized I'd felt like this for a while. Though life had gone on since my mother's death - Kate had gotten married, I'd finally published another book and gone on tour with it - some sort of internal-pause button had been pushed, allowing another part of me, one I'd specifically kept sequestered to deal with my mother, to fall silent. Since her death, Barbara and I had gone through all her things and settled her affairs, but we'd barely spoken of her. ~ Richard Russo

We're OConchobhairs and they're our friends. Dad always said that what our name means - friend of the wolves. ~ Kirsty Murray

Nell was like a witch. Her long silvery hair rolled into a bun on the back of her head, the narrow wooden house on the hillside in Paddington, with its peeling lemon-yellow paint and overgrown garden, the neighborhood cats that followed her everywhere. The way she had of fixing her eyes so straight on you, as if she might be about to cast a spell. ~ Kate Morton

Charles's old ally Don Enrique, King of Castile, also died before taking sides, and his son, Juan I, though heavily pressed by Charles V to support Clement, preferred to maintain "neutrality," saying that, while faithful to the French alliance, he could not go against the conscience of his subjects. Common people, nobility, clerics, learned men, he wrote, were all Urbanist. "What government, O wise prince," he pointedly inquired of Charles, "has ever succeeded in triumphing over public conscience supported by reason? What punishments are available to subjugate a free soul? ~ Barbara W. Tuchman

it's good to fail sometimes.When you fail, you have to prove yourself. That's often the best thing than can happen, because then you're sure your success isn't just luck. - Barbara Walters ~ The Editors Of O, The Oprah Magazine

Forgive me, O Heavenly Father, according to the multitude of Thy mercies. I have lusted in my heart to break a man's skull and scatter the stench of his brains across several people's back yards. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

I have what passes for an education in this day and time, but I am not deceived by it. ~ Flannery O'Connor

The mind serves best when it's anchored in the Word of God. There is no danger then of becoming an intellectual without integrity ... ~ Flannery O'Connor

She had been so fiercely alive. She had spoken honestly, and lived with an honesty that few could claim to match. She had made the most of every minute she was given. She bargained and rationed and managed the seconds. She burned up the days. ~ Ann Napolitano

Arizonians are deeply proud of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's service to this country. She will always be remembered by Arizonans and all Americans as an extraordinary public servant. ~ Jon Kyl

If God is about putting God ahead of myself then I've just quit being religious, because that's what got me into such deep trouble. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor

All rituals are paradoxical and dangerous enterprises, the traditional and improvised, the sacred and the secular. Paradoxical because rituals are conspicuously artificial and theatrical, yet designed to suggest the inevitability and absolute truth of their messages. Dangerous because when we are not convinced by a ritual we may become aware of ourselves as having made them up, thence on the paralyzing realization that we have made up all our truths; our ceremonies, our most precious conceptions and convictions - all are mere inventions. ~ Barbara Myerhoff

In summer a young rooster's fancy turns to ... how can I say this delicately? The most ham-fisted attempts at courtship I've ever had to watch. (And yes, I'm including high school.) ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Human beings have a hard time regarding anything beautiful without wanting to devour it. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor

The same liberty that protects me also protects members of the Mafia. ~ Barbara Amiel

Barbara had really missed her calling. She should have been a gynecologist. Nothing pleased her more than having her face between another woman's legs. ~ Elysia N. Fields

If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're talking about it or thinking about it, I'm not so sure. Writing is ninety-eight percent work and two percent magic. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

The basic purpose of a liberal arts education is to liberate the human being to exercise his or her potential to the fullest. ~ Barbara M. White

If a woman is physically active during labor, her baby is constantly repositioning in the womb, readjusting and descending, preparing for the birth. Requiring a woman to be in bed during any part of her labor and decreasing her ability to move increases the need for interventions. ~ Barbara Harper

Sometime in the eighties, Americans had a new set of 'traditional values' installed ... the poor and the middle class were shaken down, and their loose change funneled blithely upwards to the already overfed. ~ Barbara Ehrenreich

You can't replace people you love with other people ... But you can trust that you're not going to run out of people to love. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Anytime you get this many light-skinned black people together at least half of them are going to be folks who act light-skinned. ~ Barbara Neely

It's okay. It may not seem like it right now, but you are going to be fine. I know it's scary, but don't be afraid. You are who you are, and you should love that person, and I don't want anyone to have to go through 22 years of their life afraid to accept that. ~ Connor Franta

I am attempting to move away from the exclusionary practices of feminist theory, particularly anti-pornography rhetoric, in order to amplify the discussion about the complexity of pleasure for women. ~ Barbara Degenevieve

Producing the vibration of love is based on your ability to feel deep pain ... go into those feelings ... and to find peace once again. ~ Barbara Marciniak

When something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name and make it the best home you can. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another that is surely the basic instinct - crying out: High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is! ~ Barbara Kingsolver

supervise the gardener who had taken over from him. She was very fond of Harry, ~ Barbara Taylor Bradford

What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Parents today are under a lot of stress, sometimes working two jobs just to make ends meet. They're trying to find day care for their kids and elder care for their own parents. The Federal Government shouldn't add to their worries by not living up to its obligations. ~ Barbara Mikulski

arm more tightly, as much to quell her own fears as give support to Adele. When they finally reached the hall, Adele looked around swiftly and then she also shivered and drew her robe about her. It seemed ~ Barbara Taylor Bradford

Mankind's tragedy is that he can draw up blueprints for a better life but he cannot live up to them. ~ Barbara W. Tuchman

And you came over to make sure I was all right, is that what you're telling me? You cam over here with your shotgun to protect me from my scarecrow?"
"I had to," Garnett said, spreading his hands, throwing himself on her mercy. " I didn't care for the way Buddy was looking at you in your short pants. ~ Barbara Kingsolver