61 John Knowles Quotes Worth Knowing
There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream.
I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.
Nothing endures. Not a tree. Not love. Not even death by violence.
What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love.
Sarcasm... the protest of those who are weak.
It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart
I began to know that each morning reasserted the problems of night before, that sleep suspended all but changed nothing, that you couldn’t make yourself over between dawn and dusk.
Everything has to evolve or else it perishes.
So the more things remained the same, the more they changed after all. Nothing endures. Not love, not a tree, not even a death by violence.
But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved.
Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him.
It is a sad day when one looks back and sees that his largest regrets have become some of the most integral elements of his dreams.
But something held me back. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.
Always say some prayers at night because it might turn out that there is a God.
When you love something it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.
You have to do what you think is the right thing, but just make sure it’s the right thing in the long run, and not just for the moment.
I did no know everything there was to know about myself, and knew that I did not know it.
Gene, on the desire to be Finny: "I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.
So the more things stay the same, the more they change after all.
As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.
I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.
So the more things remain the same, the more they change after all—plus c'est la même chose, plus ça change. Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.
Life is fighting. In life, it's the look ahead that counts. We are all born equally far from the sun. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love.
Stranded in this mill town railroad yard while the whole world was converging elsewhere, we seemed to be nothing but children playing among heroic men.
I knew that part of friendship consisted in accepting a friend’s shortcomings, which sometimes included his parents.
The scornful force of his tone turned the word into a curse
Because it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.
I jounced the limb.
We are all born equally far from the sun.
What deceived me was my own happiness; for peace is indivisible, and the surrounding world confusion found no reflection inside me.
