Two-Part Invention Quotes

“Love of music, of sunsets and sea; a liking for the same kind of people; political opinions that are not radically divergent; a similar stance as we look at the stars and think of the marvelous strangeness of the universe - these are what build a marriage. And it is never to be taken for granted.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“We do learn and develop when we are exposed to those who are greater than we are. Perhaps this is the chief way we mature.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“What I must learn is to love with all of me, giving all of me, and yet remain whole in myself. Any other kind of love is too demanding of the other; it takes, rather than gives. To love so completely that you lose yourself in another person is not good. You are giving a weight, not the sense of lightness and light that loving someone should give.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“But grief still has to be worked through. It is like walking through water. Sometimes there are little waves lapping about my feet. Sometimes there is an enormous breaker that knocks me down. Sometimes there is a sudden and fierce squall. But I know that many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“The growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“If we don't pray according to the needs of the heart, we repress our deepest longings. Our prayers may not be rational, and we may be quite aware of that, but if we repress our needs, then those unsaid prayers will fester.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“If we are not willing to fail we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“If we accept that we have at least an iota of free will, we cannot throw it back the moment things go wrong. Like a human parent, God will help us when we ask for help, but in a way that will make us more mature, more real, not in a way that will diminish us.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“It does not matter that we cannot fathom this mystery. The only real problem comes when we think that we have.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“I do not believe that true optimism can come about except through tragedy.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“But if Hugh dies first, would I ever be able to stop saying, "we" and say "I"? I doubt it. I do not think that death can take away the fact that Hugh and I are "we" and "us," a new creature born of the time of our marriage vows, which has grown along with us as our marriage has grown. Even during the times, inevitable in all marriages, when I have felt angry, or alienated, the instinctive "we" remains. And most growth has come during times of trial.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“Because we suddenly see that making everything all right would NOT make everything all right. We would not be human beings. We would then be no more than puppets obeying the strings of the master puppeteer. We agree sadly that it is a good thing that we are not God; we do not have to understand God's ways, or the suffering and brokenness and pain that sooner or later come to us all.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“I was filled with anxiety that something might happen to him while we were far from home. I did not voice my fear or write about them in my journal, because that would have given them a reality I desperately desired to avoid”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

“we do not have to understand God’s ways, or the suffering and brokenness and pain that sooner or later come to us all. But we do have to know in the very depths of our being that the ultimate end of the story, no matter how many aeons it takes, is going to be all right.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage