Luci Shaw Quotes

Nordenson describes wrestling with work as with a large force that wants to have its way with you, even as you want to have your way with it. This wrestling, sinewy and particular as its wrestler, enlarges us as we read our way into her life with its incisive insights and explorations. Can one wrestle meditatively? This author has learned the art and we are the benefactors. ~ Luci Shaw

Being in a state of mystery seems to be my calling. ~ Luci Shaw

Too Much to Ask
It seemed too much to ask of one small virgin that she should stake shame against the will of God. All she had to hold to, later, were those soft, inward flutterings and the remembered surprise of a brief encounter - spirit with flesh. Who would think it more than a dream wish? An implausible, laughable defense.
And ~ Luci Shaw

Whether we are poets or parents or teachers or artists or gardeners, we must start where we are and use what we have. In the process of creation and relationship, what seems mundane and trivial may show itself to be a holy, precious part of a pattern. ~ Luci Shaw

Risk should not reflect a celebration of foolishness but a freedom from fear. ~ Luci Shaw

Disappointment often focuses on the failure of our own agenda rather than on God's long-term purposes for us, which may use stress and struggle as tools for strengthening our spiritual muscles. ~ Luci Shaw

I have always welcomed the perennials but today I celebrate weeds. The arrival of
horse-tails, their primitive vigor thrusting up
under the fence as if the Third Day of Creation
were just yesterday. In penance, as redemption,
I will begin to touch the earth more lightly,
remembering to walk barefoot in the soft
forest so that I make no bruit or break… (40, "Gardener's Remorse") ~ Luci Shaw

Like all art, poems are only hints and guesses that draw our attention to something larger. ~ Luci Shaw

Beauty is there to be noticed. Too often it is taken for granted because we are moving too fast to let it in and allow it to deliver its message in us. We need to pay attention. To show indifference to beauty is an insult to its Creator. ~ Luci Shaw

Paul gives us an astonishing understanding of waiting in the New Testament book of Romans, as rendered by Eugene Peterson, 'Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.' With such motivation, we can wait as we sense God is indeed with us, and at work within us, as he was with Mary as the child within her grew. ~ Luci Shaw

We have a 'now you see Him, now you don't' God. We have Himself clothed in visions, in dreams, in metaphors, in parables, in the poetry of the Bible, and in all the ordinariness of the lives we live. ~ Luci Shaw

The worst cliques are those which consist of one man. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Social progress takes effect through the replacement of all institutions by new ones; and since every institution involves the recognition of the duty of conforming to it, progress must involve the repudiation of an established duty at every step. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Without music we shall surely perish of drink, morphia, and all sorts of artificial exaggerations of the cruder delights of the senses. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Life is a disease; and the only difference between on man and another is the stage of the disease at which he lives. ~ George Bernard Shaw

I never climbed any ladder: I have achieved eminence by sheer gravitation. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Medical science is as yet very imperfectly differentiated from common cure-mongering witchcraft ~ George Bernard Shaw

It annoys me to see people comfortable when they ought to be uncomfortable; and I insist on making them think in order to bring them to conviction of sin. If you don't like my preaching you must lump it. I really cannot help it. In the preface to my Plays for Puritans I ~ George Bernard Shaw

We are members one of another; so that you cannot injure or help your neighbor without injuring or helping yourself. ~ George Bernard Shaw

I am convinced that fine art is the subtlest, the most seductive, the most effective instrument of moral propaganda in the world, excepting only the example of personal conduct; and I waive even this exception in favor of the art of the stage, because it works by exhibiting examples of personal conduct made intelligible and moving to crowds of unobservant, unreflecting people to whom real life means nothing. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Confusing monogamy with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other error. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Maybe he'd never come across anybody as well versed at objectifying body parts as I was. In my defense, this was an occupational hazard; one of the tricks of my trade was the ability to work with whatever was at hand. Over the years I'd learned to pinpoint my focus to the width of a pubic hair if there was nothing else to work with. (...) Before my eyes -or, more precisely, in my mind- Rasher became Lovely Bum Man. ~ Aiden Shaw

Tanner: My dear Tavy, your pious English habit of regarding the world as a moral gymnasium built expressly to strengthen your character in leads you to think about your own confounded principles when you should be thinking about other people's necessities. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Vampires and fancy clothing just went together ; it was one of those things. ~ Vivian Shaw

Regarding the mantra ... "There is no overtraining" Just because you can handle large amounts of volume doesn't mean it's needed. That's the crux of the issue. Just because the body can tolerate something doesn't mean it's a necessity for progress. This is simply poor logic. ~ Steve Shaw

A smart man understood that victory was not inevitable. An even smarter man knew that defeat was never really total if you figured out how to handle the aftermath with skill and just the right spin.
And the smartest men of all, even when they lost, they actually won. ~ David Baldacci

Character actor' is a technical term denoting a clever stage performer who cannot act, and therefore makes an elaborate study of the disguises and stage tricks by which acting can be grotesquely simulated. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Of course there's a risk that that could happen, but what is the alternative? To never allow myself to get close to anyone ever again? Never know the joy of loving someone for fear that it could end up in tears? My heart might stay safe, but it wouldn't be much of a life. ~ Chantelle Shaw

If a farmer calls me to a sick animal, he couldn't care less if I were George Bernard Shaw. ~ James Herriot

Affection between adults - if they are really adult in mind and not merely grown up children - and creatures so relatively selfish and cruel as children necessarily are without knowing it or meaning it, cannot be called natural. ~ George Bernard Shaw

When a man of normal habits is ill, everyone hastens to assure him that he is going to recover. When a vegetarian is ill (which fortunately very seldom happens), everyone assures him that he is going to die, and that they told him so, and that it serves him right. They implore him to take at least a little gravy, so as to give himself a chance of lasting out the night ~ George Bernard Shaw

Wise kings wear shabby clothes, and leave the gold lace to the drum major. ~ George Bernard Shaw

No one has ever used historical examples, near or remote, with the detail, precision, and directness to be found in every page of Shaw. ~ Jacques Barzun

No, really: I can't fight, I never could. I can't bring myself to dislike anyone enough. ~ George Bernard Shaw

A true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art. ~ George Bernard Shaw

My mother married a very good man ... and she is not at all keen on my doing the same. ~ George Bernard Shaw

The churches must learn humility as well as teach it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die. ~ George Bernard Shaw

If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth - beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals - would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals? ~ George Bernard Shaw

My reputation grows with every failure. ~ George Bernard Shaw

It would positively be a relief to me to dig Shakespeare up and throw stones at him. ~ George Bernard Shaw

It must be able to assist in devising the method of solution of problems and not merely solve them. ~ Cliff Shaw