Kathleen Norris Quotes

Pay close attention to objects, events and natural phenomenon that would otherwise get chewed up in the daily grind.

I've come to see conspiracy theories as the refuge of those who have lost their natural curiosity and ability to cope with change.

Traversing a slow page, to come upon a lode of the pure shining metal is to exult inwardly for greedy hours.

It's all so beautiful . . . the spring . . . and books and music and fires. . . . Why aren't they enough?

We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.

In middle age we are apt to reach the horrifying conclusion that all sorrow, all pain, all passionate regret and loss and bitter disillusionment are self-made

Laundry, liturgy and women's work all serve to ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down. Our daily tasks, whether we perceive them as drudgery or essential, life-supporting work, do not define who we are as women or as human beings.

The very nature of marriage means saying yes before you know what it will cost. Though you may say the “I do” of the wedding ritual in all sincerity, it is the testing of that vow over time that makes you married.

Poets and monks... We're both sort of peripheral to the world.

Spring seems far off, impossible, but it is coming. Already there is dusk instead of darkness at five in the afternoon; already hope is stirring at the edges of the day.