Nicholas Wolterstorff Quotes

The tears of God are the meaning of history. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Sometimes the reason offered for seeking aesthetic excellence in the music of the church is that thereby one pleases God. I think that is true. But not because we know what music God enjoys
though I suspect it must be music which is unified, rich, and intense! Rather, because it is in the joy of his people that God finds delight. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Rather often I am asked whether the grief remains as intense as when I wrote. The answer is, No. The wound is no longer raw. But it has not disappeared. That is as it should be. If he was worth loving, he is worth grieving over.

Grief is existential testimony to the worth of the one loved. That worth abides. So I own my grief. I do not try to put it behind me, to get over it, to forget it… Every lament is a love-song. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Why are the photographs of him as a little boy so incredibly hard to look at? Something is over. Now instead of those shiny moments being things we can share together in delighted memories, I, the survivor, have to bear them alone. So it is with all the memories of him. They all lead into blackness. All I can do is remember him, I cannot experience him. Nothing new can happen between us. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

How is faith to endure, O God, when you allow all this scraping and tearing on us? You have allowed rivers of blood to flow, mountains of suffering to pile up, sobs to become humanity's song
all without lifting a finger that we could see. You have allowed bonds of love beyond number to be painfully snapped. If you have not abandoned us, explain yourself.
We strain to hear. But instead of hearing an answer we catch sight of God himself scraped and torn. Through our tears we see the tears of God. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Technology does make possible advance toward shalom; progress in mastery of the world can bring shalom nearer. But the limits of technology must also be acknowledged; technology is entirely incapable of bringing about shalom between ourselves and God, and it is only scarcely capable of bringing about the love of self and neighbour. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

the United States has managed its cultural diversity through a collective determination among its people to be at once pluralistic and civil. As difficult as pluralism and civility are for both red and blue today, that is the way for America to be truest to itself. If secular and religious Americans can respect one another, avoid believing each other to be dangerous, and avoid being dangerous to each other - engage in what philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff calls dialogical pluralism - America also can set an example that is germane to the Middle East's ongoing struggle. ~ John M. Owen IV

In the valley of suffering, despair and bitterness are brewed. But there also character is made. The valley of suffering is the vale of soul-making. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Will my eyes adjust to this darkness? Will I find you in the dark – not in the streaks of light which remain, but in the darkness? Has anyone ever found you there? Did they love what they saw? Did they see love? And are there songs for singing when the light has gone dim? Or in the dark, is it best to wait in silence?

Noon has darkened. As fast as they could say, 'He's dead,' the light dimmed. And where are you in the darkness? I learned to spy you in the light. Here in this darkness, I cannot find you. If I had never looked for you, or looked but never found, I would not feel this pain of your absence. Or is not your absence in which I dwell, but your elusive troubling presence?

It's the neverness that is so painful. Never again to be here with us – never to sit with us at the table…. All the rest of our lives we must live without him. Only our death can stop the pain of his death. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Jesus personally responds to our fuming and sadness. Feisty Martha got to see Jesus get angry at death. Tenderhearted Mary got to see him cry. Two unique women witnessed two unique responses from their Lord and Friend. Jesus, who is the fullness of the image of God, not only sympathized with them, he did so according to their uniqueness. Jesus arched his back toward the bully for Martha's sake. Then he shed tears for Mary's sake. Perhaps Nicholas Wolterstorff was thinking of Jesus' tears when he wrote this reflection in response to the premature death of his son: We strain to hear [God in our sorrows]. But instead of hearing an answer we catch the sight of God himself scraped and torn. Through our tears we see the tears of God. . . . Perhaps his sorrow is splendor. ~ Scott Sauls

I Shall Look At The World Through Tears. Perhaps I Shall See Things That, Dry-Eyed, I Could Not See ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

And what of regrets? I shall live with them. I shall accept my regrets as part of my life, to be numbered among my self-inflicted wounds. But I will not endlessly gaze at them. I shall allow the memories to prod me into doing better with those still living. And I shall allow them to sharpen the vision and intensify the hope for that Great Day coming when we can all throw ourselves into each other's arms and say, I'm sorry. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Faith is a footbridge that you don't know will hold you up over the chasm until you're forced to walk out onto it. ~ Nicholas Wolterstorff

Every great love starts with a great story... ~ Nicholas Sparks

It was just a normal day, a day like any other. But most of all it was a day in which everything was exactly the way it should be. ~ Nicholas Sparks

Read the book, Shadow over the Winter Palace," Sam Hugh explained. "It's about the Russian Czar Nicholas II and his crazy wife." Of course, Santos ~ Anita Paddock

Alas, investors and businesses are not paid in probabilities; they are paid in dollars. Accordingly, it is not how likely an event is to happen that matters, it is how much is made when it happens that should be the consideration. How frequent the profit is irrelevant; it is the magnitude of the outcomes that counts. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

DUMBLEDORE conjures NICOLAS FLAMEL'S card from thin air and offers it to NEWT, who eyes it with suspicion.
NEWT: What's that?
DUMBLEDORE: It's an address of a very old acquaintance of mine. A safe house in Paris, reinforced with enchantments.
NEWT: Safe house? Why would I need a safe house in Paris?
DUMBLEDORE: One hopes you won't, but should things at some point go terribly wrong, it's good to have a place to go. You know, for a cup of tea.
NEWT: No, no, no - absolutely not. ~ J.K. Rowling

I have loved another with all my heart, and for me that has always been enough. ~ Nicholas Sparks

Others have falsely claimed to be the inspiration for Tom Booker in The Horse Whisperer. The one who truly inspired me was Buck Brannaman. His skill, understanding and his gentle, loving heart have parted the clouds for countless troubled creatures. Buck is the Zen master of the horse world. ~ Nicholas Evans

The best test of whether someone is extremely stupid (or extremely wise) is whether financial and political news makes sense to him. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

But as he shook her hand and met those striking emerald eyes, he knew before he'd taken his sext breath that she was the one he could spend the rest of his life looking for but never find again. ~ Nicholas Sparks

Clay pushed his body off him and mumbled another apology - because, enemy or not, when you hit a man in the nuts with a magic hammer the least you could say was sorry. ~ Nicholas Eames

Faith in an afterlife was important to Egyptians: they deliberately made their tombs the most permanent part of their built environment, and we find them in their literature very much concerned with what they could know about life after death, judgement and individual survival. Certainly they preserved their religion for most of the lifespan of their language, and they no more actively preached it abroad than they attempted to spread their language when they enlarged the boundaries of their power. But aspects of their faith did spread without the language none the less: their mother-goddess Isis became one of the most widely revered deities in the Roman empire, and has been seen as a root of the Christian cult of Mary as Mother of God. ~ Nicholas Ostler

If your private life conflicts with your intellectual opinion, it cancels your intellectual ideas, not your private life. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Don't think there are no second chances.
Life always offers you a SECOND CHANCE ...
It's called TOMORROW ~ Nicholas Sparks

We're still a long way from knowing where our clicks will lead us. But it's clear that two of the hopes most dear to the Internet optimists - that the Web will create a more bountiful culture and that it will promote greater harmony and understanding - should be treated with skepticism. Cultural impoverishment and social fragmentation seem equally likely outcomes. ~ Nicholas Carr

Jamie: You have to promise you won't fall in love with me.
Landon: That's not a problem. ~ Nicholas Sparks

I wanted to write a story that was different than what I've done before - so I decided to write dual love stories that will keep the reader wondering how the stories will come together by the end. ~ Nicholas Sparks

that very rare ability called imagination, that rarer quality called courage, and who make things happen. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The paparazzi don't care about me. ~ Nicholas Hoult

The government-sponsored institution Fannie Mae, when I look at its risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite, vulnerable to the slightest hiccup. But not to worry: their large staff of scientists deemed these events "unlikely." ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The observation of the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions forbids us to grow insolent upon our present enjoyments, or to admire a man's happiness that may yet, in course of time, suffer change. For the uncertain future has yet to come, with all variety of future; and to him only to whom the divinity has [guaranteed] continued happiness until the end we may call happy. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If you need to listen to music while walking, don't walk; and please don't listen to music. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The constant, obvious flattery, contrary to all evidence, of the people around him [Tsar Nicholas I] had brought him to the point that he no longer saw his contradictions, no longer conformed his actions and words to reality, logic, or even simple common sense, but was fully convinced that all his orders, however senseless, unjust, and inconsistent with each other, became sensible, just, and consistent with each other only because he gave them. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Redundancy is ambiguous because it seems like a waste if nothing unusual happens. Except that something unusual happens-usually . ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

All they told me was that he was forty-two when he died. I just wanted...to find out more about what kind of person he was.
I could tell you more, amanda thought to herself. A lot more. She'd suspected the truth since Morgan Tanner had called, and she'd made some calls to confirm her suspicions. Dawson, she'd learned, had been taking off life support at CarolinaEast Regional Medical Center late Monday night. He's been kept alive long after doctors knew he would never recover, because he was an organ donor.
Dawson, she knews, had saved Alan's life-but in the end, he'd saved Jared's as well. And for that meant...everything. I gave you the best of me, he'd told her once, and with every beat of her son's heart, she knew he'd done exactly that.
How about a quick hug," she said, "before we go inside?" Jared rolled his eyes, but he opened his arms anyway. "I love you, Mom," he mumbled, pulling her close.
Amanda closed her eyes, feeling the steady rhythm in his chest. "I love you, too. ~ Nicholas Sparks

He wanted to shout, telling her to stop. He wanted to tell her that he could stay, that he wanted to stay, that if leaving meant losing her, then going home wasn't worth it. But the words stayed trapped inside him ... ~ Nicholas Sparks

And the naked lovers looked for a place where they could lay together & Aphrodite suggested that her bed was as good as any. And thus, Ares & Aphrodite, dropped their war games in favour of love games, to make love, not war. And as they kissed & coupled again & again in Aphrodite`s bed, the Goddess of Love was impregnated with the lovely Harmonia since Harmony & Peace prevailed when people made love, not war. And that was also the time when Chaos fell on the lovers as the invisible netting rigged by Hephaestus over his wife`s bed caught the lovers in its trap. ~ Nicholas Chong

It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

without music he felt aimless and adrift. ~ Nicholas Sparks

Our souls were one, if you must know and never shall they be apart; with splendid dawn, your face aglow i reach for you and find my heart ~ Nicholas Sparks

Natural things gave back more than they took, and their sounds always brought him back to the way man was supposed to be. ~ Nicholas Sparks

The author cites researcher David Howard's idea of post-traumatic growth. Howard contends that some individuals faced with a traumatic event actually develop new strength. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Stay open to opportunity
you never know where your next important connection will be made. ~ Nicholas Boothman

We live to produce information, or improve on it. Nietzsche had the Latin pun aut liberi, aut libri - either children or books, both information that caries through the centuries ... I am here to die a heroic death for the sake of the collective, to produce offspring (and prepare them for life and provide for them), or eventually, books, - my information, that is, my genes, the anti-fragile in me, should be the ones seeking immortality, not me. Then say goodbye, have a nice funeral in St. Sergius (Mar Sarkis) in Amioun, and, as the French say, place aux autres - make room for others (p. 370-371). ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Procrustean bed in life consists precisely in simplifying the non-linear and making it linear - the simplification that distorts. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

There is nothing wherein their womanliness is more honestly garnished than with silence. ~ Nicholas Udall

It's interesting to think about how the book changed us. ~ Nicholas G. Carr

You're important," Nicholas interrupted quietly catching her face and turning her to peer at him. "You're the most important thing in the world to me Jo. I love you. Let me have this moment. ~ Lynsay Sands

My first thoughts after waking are – and always have been – of you. ~ Nicholas Sparks

The excess energy released from overreaction to setbacks is what innovates! ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

He watches you the way Nicholas watched Samantha. ~ J.M. Darhower

Jamie was more than just the woman I loved. In the year Jamie helped me become the man I am today. With her steady hand she showed how important it was to help others; with her patience and kindness she showed me what life really is all about. Her cheerfulness and optimism, even in times of sickness, was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed ...
Jamie also thought me the value of forgiveness and the transforming power it offers ...
Jamie was not only the angel who saved Tom Thornton, she was the angel who saved us all. ~ Nicholas Sparks

Too many people glorified small-town America, making it seems like a Normal Rockwell painting, but the reality was something else entirely. With the exception of doctors and lawyers or people who owned their own business, there were no high-paying jobs in Oriental, or any other small town for that matter. And while is was in many way an ideal place to raise young children, there was little for young adults to aspire to.There weren't, nor would there ever be, middle management positions in small towns, nor was there much to do on the weekends, or even new people to meet ~ Nicholas Sparks

I love you now as I write this, and I love you now as you read this ~ Nicholas Sparks