Quotes by George MacDonald

About George MacDonald:

George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

That's a poet.' 'I thought you said it was a bo-at.' 'Stupid pet! Don't you know what a poet it?' 'Why, a thing to sail on the water in.' 'Well, perhaps you're not so far wrong. Some poets do carry people over the sea....' ... 'A poet is a man who is...

George MacDonald

Attitudes are more important than facts.

George MacDonald

Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.

George MacDonald

But we believe – nay, Lord we only hope, That one day we shall thank thee perfectly For pain and hope and all that led or drove Us back into the bosom of thy love.

George MacDonald

O, lack and doubt and fear can only come Because of plenty, confidence, and love! They are the shadow-forms about their feet, Because they are not perfect crystal-clear To the all-searching sun in which they live. Dread of its loss is Beauty’s cert...

George MacDonald

For others, as for ourselves, we must trust him. If we could thoroughly understand anything, that would be enough to prove it undivine; and that which is but one step beyond our understanding must be in some of its relations as mysterious as if it we...

George MacDonald

As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book.

George MacDonald

Understanding is the reward of obedience. Obedience is the key to every door. I am perplexed at the stupidity of the ordinary religious being. In the most practical of all matters he will talk and speculate and try to feel, but he will not set himsel...

George MacDonald

Our Lord speaks of many coming up to His door confident of admission, whom He yet sends away. Faith is obedience, not confidence.

George MacDonald

I would I were in the kingdom of heaven if it be as you and Mr. Graham take it for!" said Clementina. "You must be in it, my lady, or you couldn't wish it to be such as it is." "Can one be in it and yet seem to himself to be out of it. Malcolm?" "So ...

George MacDonald

It is just the old way--that of obedience. If you have ever seen the Lord, if only from afar--if you have any vaguest suspicion that the Jew Jesus, who professed to have come from God, was a better man, a different man--one of your first duties must ...

George MacDonald

I fear you will never arrive at an understanding of God so long as you cannot bring yourself to see the good that often comes as a result of pain. For there is nothing, from the lowest, weakest tone of suffering to the loftiest acme of pain, to which...

George MacDonald

I do believe that when a man confesses to his neighbor and says he's sorry, he thinks more of him than he did before. You see, we all know we have done wrong, but we haven't usually confessed it. And it's a funny thing, but when the time comes when t...

George MacDonald

It is not at all a fit place for ," said Clementina. "Gently, my lady. It is a greater than thou that sets the bounds of my habitation. Perhaps He may give me a palace one day. But the Father has decreed for His children that they shall know the thin...

George MacDonald

...I am still librarian in your house, for I never was dismissed, and never gave up the office. Now I am librarian here as well.' 'But you have just told me you were sexton here!' 'So I am. It is much the same profession. Except you are a true sexton...

George MacDonald

A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.

George MacDonald

Lexie was the leader of the bobble heads. They were a group of girls best described as perfect, plastic, fake and hollow headed, hence the name bobble heads.

George MacDonald

I wiped my jaw with a forearm, half imagining that I could still feel the product of the quickie out back of the bar.

George MacDonald

Flashes of my past lives kept crawling across my vision. I had Akima’s laugh, Eve’s blind ability to love, and Marrah’s unwavering belief in family. I was all of these women and none of them. Their souls carried along inside of me but unmistaka...

George MacDonald

Where people know their work and do it, life has few blank spaces for boredom and they are seldom to be pitied. Where people have not yet found their work, they may be more pitied than those that beg their bread. When a man knows his work and will no...

George MacDonald

Author Bio

  • NameGeorge MacDonald
  • DescriptionScottish author, poet, and Christian minister
  • AliasesAuthor of Dealings with fairies,
  • BornDecember 10, 1824
  • DiedSeptember 18, 1905
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Minister; Poet; Novelist; Cleric
  • WorksLilith; Phantastes; David Elginbrod; The Princess And The Goblin; At The Back Of The North Wind