As a thinker I keep discovering that beauty itself is as much a fact, and a mystery...I consider nature's facts -- its beautiful and grotesque forms and events -- in terms of the import to thought and their impetus to the spirit. In nature I find grace tangled in a rapture with violence; I find an intricate landscape whose forms are fringed in death; I find mystery, newness, and a kind of exuberant, spendthrift energy.
Annie DillardI had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.
Annie DillardIt's a little silly to finally learn how to write at this age. But I long ago realized I was secretly sincere.
Annie DillardWe are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us.
Annie DillardI come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn't flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames.
Annie DillardWho and of what import were the men whose bones bulk the Great Wall, the thirty million Mao starved, or the thirty million children not yet five who die each year now? Why, they are the insignificant others, of course; living or dead, they are just some of the plentiful others...And you? To what end were we billions of oddballs born?
Annie Dillard