Top 401 quotes by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.

The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now. Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Gift from the Sea”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

600

Anne Morrow Lindbergh quote Don't wish me happiness<br ...

Don't wish me happiness
I don't expect to be happy all the time...
It's gotton beyond that somehow.
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor.
I will need them all.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Gift from the Sea”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

415

Anne Morrow Lindbergh quote Good communication is as st...

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Gift from the Sea”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

Conversation

238

Anne Morrow Lindbergh quote it takes as much courage to...

it takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeded.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Inspirational , Life , Courage

177

For Sayonara, literally translated, 'Since it must be so,' of all the good-bys I have heard is the most beautiful. Unlike the Auf Wiedershens and Au revoirs, it does not try to cheat itself by any bravado 'Till we meet again,' any sedative to postpone the pain of separation. It does not evade the issue like the sturdy blinking Farewell. Farewell is a father's good-by. It is - 'Go out in the world and do well, my son.' It is encouragement and admonition. It is hope and faith. But it passes over the significance of the moment; of parting it says nothing. It hides its emotion. It says too little. While Good-by ('God be with you') and Adios say too much. They try to bridge the distance, almost to deny it. Good-by is a prayer, a ringing cry. 'You must not go - I cannot bear to have you go! But you shall not go alone, unwatched. God will be with you. God's hand will over you' and even - underneath, hidden, but it is there, incorrigible - 'I will be with you; I will watch you - always.' It is a mother's good-by. But Sayonara says neither too much nor too little. It is a simple acceptance of fact. All understanding of life lies in its limits. All emotion, smoldering, is banked up behind it. But it says nothing. It is really the unspoken good-by, the pressure of a hand, 'Sayonara.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“North to the Orient”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1935.

Mother , Beauty , Emotion , God , Father , Farewell , English , German , Goodbyes , French , Spanish , Japanese

105

Anne Morrow Lindbergh quote The sea does not reward tho...

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Gift from the Sea”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

101

Anne Morrow Lindbergh quote Security in a relationship ...

Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Gift from the Sea”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

101

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Gift from the Sea". Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Chapter 2, 1955.

Life , Being Yourself , Just Being

...I want first of all - in fact, as an end to these other desires - to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central cor to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact - to borrow from the language of the saints -to live 'in grace' as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony...
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Life , Grace

Men kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

When you love someone you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Gift from the Sea”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

Love , Fluidity , Ebb

Parting is inevitably painful, even for a short time. It's like an amputation, I feel a limb is being torn off, without which I shall be unable to function. And yet, once it is done... life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid and fuller than before.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Grief , Death

With a new awareness, both painful and humorous, I begin to understand why the saints were rarely married women. I am convinced it has nothing inherently to do, as I once supposed, with chastity or children. It has to do primarily with distractions. The bearing, rearing, feeding and educating of children; the running of a house with its thousand details; human relationships with their myriad pulls--woman's normal occupations in general run counter to creative life, or contemplative life, or saintly life. The problem is not merely one of Woman and Career, Woman and the Home, Woman and Independence. It is more basically: how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life; how to remain balanced, no matter what centrifugal forces tend to pull one off center; how to remain strong, no matter what shocks come in at the periphery and tend to crack the hub of the wheel.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Gift from the Sea”. Book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955.

It isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for that long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Sanity , Faith , Grieving , Courage , Security , Grieving Mother

By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Gift from the Sea ch. 3 (1955)

Mom , Motherhood , Mothers Day