Mary Doria Russell quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Mary Doria Russell

Mary Doria Russell Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Mary Doria Russell on Wise Famous Quotes.

Celestina Giuliani learned the word "slander" at her cousin's baptism.

When she finished, no one clapped or even breathed, for they were still inside that sacred place that music can sometimes create.

Distressing to be hated because of lies, isn't it." (Mirella)
"Especially when there are so many legitimate reasons to be hated." (Schramm)

It's not easy to be obedient if you suspect your superiors are asses.

The poor you will always have with you,' Jesus said. A warning, Emilio wondered, or an indictment?

Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between "That doesn't make sense" and "I don't understand.

...she was, after all, a practical woman and the daughter of an economist.

God will break your heart.

He ain't big and he ain't strong, but that boy's got a by-God streak of fight in him. And he was going to need it.

Bein' born is craps," he decided. He glanced at Morg and let loose that sly, lopsided smile of his. "How we live is poker.

You are young, Father Iron Horse, and you have a young man's vices. Certainty. Shortsightedness. Contempt for pragmatism.

Hope - cruelest of the evils that escaped Pandora's box - smiled on him gently all that summer.

Show God what yer made of, man. Pucker up and kiss the cross.

Who doesn't love a makeover? Even my husband watches 'What Not To Wear.'

Jesus Christ," Jimmy breathed, meeting the future by turning to the ancient past.

Privileged to share in the athletic power of a large and dangerous animal willing to be controlled by the small, frail strength of a mere human being.

I suppose I should warn you, Padre. In the absence of male supervision, my mother has become a revolutionary." ~Renzo Leoni

...[Emilio] felt once more the strangely visceral thrill of trying to disprove a hypothesis he suspected was robust.

Horses are mirrors. They'll show you back whatever you show them. Watch a man with a horse, and you'll see what's inside his own self.

Home," he said softly. "If there is a more beautiful word in any language, I do not know it.

Until you've been there, you can't know what it's like to hold yourself to promises you made in good faith a long time ago.

Your sorrow is of no interest to me," Sandoz said softly. "If you want absolution, go to a priest.

The sparrow still falls.

[I]t is easier to ask forgiveness than to obtain permission.

Have you ever thought about a Twelve Step program for people who talk too much? You could call it On and On Anon.

And Johannes Voelker is the last man on Earth I'd choose as a spiritual director for Sandoz, he thought. Shit or get off the pot, my son.

Tradition was safety; change was danger.

The answer was clear, though he half-expected his hand to shrivel and turn black when he voted for a Republican.

If anything could prove the existence of the soul, he thought, it was the utter emptiness of a corpse.

an insouciant flip of the wrist -

The Georgian had used more words in 5 minutes than Wyatt had spoken during 1872 and 1873 combined.

Maybe poetry is the only way we can get near the truth of God. ... And when the metaphors fail, we think it's God who's failed us!

You've seen what," Emilio conceded, "but not why! That's where God is, Anne. In the why of it - in the meaning.

Flaubert tells us that three things are required for happiness: stupidity, selfishness, and good health. I am," he told Morgan, "an unhappy man -

Instead of taking a year off, I started 'Dreamers of the Day' exactly 36 hours after I sent the manuscript for 'A Thread of Grace' to the publisher!

The sign of a good decision is the multiplicity of reasons for it.

The past was not dead but alive, and important by virtue of the very invisibility of its influence.

I ain't movin' to Arizona! Dammit, there is nothin' there but gravel and scorpions.

No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace.

I do what I do without hope of reward or fear of punishment. I do not require Heaven or Hell to bribe or scare me into acting decently.

Not just survival but a good life, full of learning, full of love, Emilio thought, and took a step closer to the death he felt inside himself. He

How can you hear your soul if everyone is talking?

Guess - You know how people say, Don't borrow trouble? Well," said Morgan, "I guess it's the opposite of that. Doc is borrowing happiness." The

After all, he thought, the one thing an agnostic knows for sure is: you never know.

Love is a debt, she thought. When the bill comes, you pay in grief.

I'll take honest arrogance over fake humility any day.

Bein' born is craps. How we live is poker. Mamma played a bad hand well.

The world is filled with unreasonable hate. What's wrong with unreasonable love?

No one who does not live with constant pain can imagine the toll it takes. The way it grinds you down. The sheer damnable tedium of it.

Wide is the gate and broad is the path that leads to destruction and many go that way

I had enjoyed something that did not belong to me, you see. When it was taken away, I was disappointed but not harmed.

Cynicism and foul language are the only vices I'm presently capable of. Everything else takes energy or money. (64)

It was politicians saying, Let's you and him fight!

You know how people say, Don't borrow trouble? Well, said Morgan, I guess it's the opposite of that. Doc is borrowing happiness.

To leave the apple unpicked - that was sin.

The trick is not to care. I have a perfect indifference to winning.

Stability and order have always been paid for with captivity and blood. (76)

Wyatt, I'm from Chicago," Eddie told him. "Let me explain politics to you.

Doc's idea of "clarifyin' a point of contention" came awful close to spitting in a man's eye.

The trouble with illusions is that you aren't aware you have any until they are taken away from you.

Each generation of adolescents has at least two historical events that color its responses to whatever happens next.

My experience is that many things are not as bad as I thought they would be.

His entire experience in this city sounded better than it lived. John

By comparison he could read her like an illustrated children's story.

The Elder is called Dee, first-born, of the Yarbrough lineage, whose landname is VaWaco.

Indulge me, John. Cynicism and foul language are the only vices I'm presently capable of. Everything else takes energy or money.

And you believe you will succeed, where God has failed me?

In my worldview, there are filers, and there are pilers. Filers think alphabetically. Pilers think geologically.

Cleveland is really good about recognizing its artists because of the Arts Council.

He had offered some of his own background. A youth in the South. An education in the North. Bred for life in the East. Trying not to die in the West.

And she laughed, a full octave, descending from high C like chimes.