Annie Dillard Quotes

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.

Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.

You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.

The secret of seeing is, then, the pearl of great price. If I thought he could teach me to find it and keep it forever I would stagger barefoot across a hundred deserts after any lunatic at all.

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

He had, at the same time, to get his hands dirty in the garden, to burrow beneath the brook, to follow the path into the forest, to ride the rapids, to look for fossils among the rocks, to wring his desires out in meditation.

That it seemed the people who had lived and died here had loved the place. The very stones were split by silent feuds of love and property.

A river he had been fully prepared to love he found he could not love—despite its beauty—because he could not trust it. It ran too chaotic.

The watery fluidity of things, as if the very ground turned to runoff and slipped through the Malkin ferns.

The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has passed, and the first of that which is coming; thus it is with time present.

Of all the trees we could have hit, we had to pick one that hits back.

Annie Dillard Quotes part 2

Maybe that’s what it’s about, isn’t it? You’re going along with your life, everything is grand, and then you suddenly find yourself with your shoes filled with water.

Uncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership; it’s an indication that you are moving forward in uncharted territory.

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.

The power you have is to be the best version of yourself you can be, so you can create a better world.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

The best revenge is massive success.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.

The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.