light Quotes

“Only when we’re brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

“We long to find the splendid light that will cast a revelatory beam upon the meaning of the human dream.”

“All nights are dark days, because night is simply a badly lit version of day.”

″‘The city of Ember was made for us long ago by the Builders,’ the book said. ‘It is the only light in the dark world. Beyond Ember, the darkness goes on forever in all directions.‘”

“When the lights were off, as they were between nine at night and six in the morning, the city was so dark that people might as well have been wearing blindfolds.”

″‘But Ember is not prospering!’ he cried. ‘Everything is getting worse and worse!’ [...] ‘The blackouts!’ cried Doon. ‘The lights go out all the time now! And the shortages, there’s shortages of everything! If no one does anything about it, something terrible is going to happen!‘”

“They stared at each other in the flickering light, realized what this meant. There was no tunnel leading out of Ember. The way out was the river. To leave Ember, they must go on the river.”

“The secret and the sacred are sisters. When the secret is not respected, the sacred vanishes. Consequently, reflection should not shine too severe or aggressive a light on the world of the soul.”

″‘Doon!’ cried Lina. ‘More lights!’ She pointed at the sky. He looked up and saw them—hundreds and hundreds of tiny flecks of light, strewn like spilled salt across the blackness. ‘Oh!’ he whispered. There was nothing else to say. The beauty of these lights made his breath stop in his throat.”

“Take a lamp, for instance. When you plug it in, it comes alive, in a way. It lights up. That’s because it’s connected to a wire that’s connected to the generator, which is making electricity, though don’t ask me how. But a bean seed isn’t connected to anything. Neither are people. We don’t have plugs and wires that connect us to generators. What makes living things go is inside them somehow.”

″‘I been working on the generator for twenty years. it’s always managed to chug along, but this year...I don’t know. The thing seems to break down every couple minutes.’ He cracked a wry smile. ‘Of course, I hear we might run out of light bulbs before that, and then it won’t matter if the generator works or not.‘”

“One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”

“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”

“It is in this light that the good works of the disciples are meant to be seen. Men are not to see the disciples but their good works, says Jesus. And these works are none other than those which the Lord Jesus himself has created in them by calling them to be the light of the world under the shadow of his cross.”

“I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining that not only has produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meanings.”

“Mine eagle is awake, and like me honoureth the sun. With eagle-talons doth it grasp at the new light. Ye are my proper animals; I love you. But still do I lack my proper men!”

“The woman who is truly self-aware knows that her self is a light from beyond this world, a spiritual essence that has nothing to do with the physical world.”

“‘Everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light.’”

“I did not know that he had put into my hands the secret that would open far darker rooms than this- places where there was not, on a human level, anything to love at all.”

“Here then at long last is my darkness. No cry of light, no glimmer, not even the faintest shard of hope to break free across the hold.”

“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.”

“The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God.”

“God, do not lose your equilibrium. Even he who loves you and discerns your face in darkness, when he trembles like a light you breathe upon, — he cannot own you quite.”

“God said, ‘Let there be light.’ I like to imagine that light replied, saying, ‘God, I have to wait for my twin brother, darkness, to be with me. I can’t be there without the darkness.’ God asked, ‘Why do you need to wait? Darkness is there.’ Light answered, ‘In that case, then I am also already there.”

“That place of true healing is a fierce place. It’s a giant place. It’s a place of monstrous beauty and endless dark and glimmering light. And you have to work really, really, really hard to get there, but you can do it.”

“He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?”

“Till the Light that hath brought the towers low find the last poor Pret’rite one.”

“The prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed—whether rightly or wrongly God knows.”

“When he speaks at last, his voice is weary, and defeated. He doesn’t know how to be angry with me, either. We are like damp wood that won’t light.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

“We are commanded to study His Torah! We are commanded to sit in the light of the Presence! It is for this that we were created! . . . Not the world, but the people of Israel!”

“Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond.”

“Everywhere and at all times, the love ethic of Jesus is a radiant light revealing the ugliness of our stale conformity.”

“Suddenly some force struck him in the chest and side, making it still harder to breathe, and he fell through the hole and there at the bottom was a light.”

“He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. ‘Where is it? What death?’ There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light.”

“You try to walk in the light.”

Wait a few minutes, our lantern will be lit, and, if you like light places, you will be satisfied.

“I only knew that it was time to go, so I opened the door and stepped into the light.”

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”

“Growth is life, and life is forever destined to make for light ”

“This horror will grow milde, this darkness light.”

“What in me is dark illumine.”

“Who’s to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who’s to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?”

The truth is the light and the light is the truth.

“If you are the light, if your enemies are darkness, then there’s nothing that you cannot justify. There’s nothing you can’t survive, because there’s nothing that you will not do.”

“‘The flu,’ the prophet said, ‘the great cleansing that we suffered twenty years ago, that flu was our flood. The light we carry within us is the ark that carried Noah and his people over the face of the terrible waters, and I submit that we were saved’—his voice was rising—‘not only to bring the light, to spread the light, but to be the light. We were saved because we are the light. We are the pure.’”

“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe.”

“There is false Knowledge: that which blindly clings To one as if ‘twere all, seeking no Cause, Deprived of light, narrow, and dull, and ‘dark.‘”

“It’s like you have all this light inside of you, but you can’t see it. It chases away the darkness in people and draws them in closer to you. It’s one of things I love most about you”

“To seek freedom is the only driving force I know. Freedom to fly off into that infinity out there. Freedom to dissolve; to lift off; to be like the flame of a candle, which, in spite of being up against the light of a billion stars, remains intact, because it never pretended to be more than what it is: a mere candle.”

“I must say this about that first fire. It was magic. Out of dead tinder and grass and sticks came a live warm light. It cracked and snapped and smoked and filled the woods with brightness. It lighted the trees and made them warm and friendly. It stood tall and bright and held back the night”

“Girls like her were born in a storm. They have lightning in their souls. Thunder in their hearts. And chaos in their bones.”

“Fortunately, the sun has a wonderfully glorious habit of rising every morning. When the sky lightened, when the birds awoke, I knew I would never again see anything so splendid as the round red sun coming up over the earth.”

“Every time the light shines through the window we built, or any window at all, you’ll know I’m right there with you, okay? That’s going to be me. I’ll be the light in the window.”

“All we see is light for forever ’Cause the sun shines bright for forever We could be all right for forever this way.”

“You alone are the life which never dies and the wisdom that needs no light besides itself, but illumines all who need to be enlightened, the wisdom that governs the world, down to the leaves that flutter on the trees.”

“Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached. Were the souls the exception to that rule? Could they have the light without the darkness of the world?”

“All who know the truth know this Light, and all who know this Light know eternity.”

“But we did not relinquish out worldly aims, because we could not see the light of any truth that we might grasp in place of them.”

“It is not so incomprehensible as you pretend, sweet pea. Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard. It can be light as the hug we give a friend or heavy as the sacrifices we make for our children.”

“God or the universe or whatever one chooses to label the great systems of balance and order does not recognize Earth-time. To the universe, four days is no different than four billion light years. I try to keep that in mind.”

“His words replayed in my mind like the music score to Shakespearean tragedy. I decided I wasn’t going to focus on the big, fat it. I was going to dig through the smothering darkness and hold onto that tiny fragment of light.”

“To know the darkness is to love the light, to welcome dawn and fear the coming night.”

“If you never saw the stars, candles were enough.”

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”

“The light strengthened, the mornings came sooner.”

“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures, hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?”

“It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which animates all men.”

“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”

“Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?” Nothing, precious,” she said; “they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children.”

“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

“Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon; How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.”

“What good did it do to light the world on fire if she had to watch the glow alone?”

“So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?”

“There’s a light in a woman’s eyes that speaks louder than words.”

“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.”

“All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely preambulations, yet daylight put an end to all these evils.”

“When a stargirl cries, she sheds not tears but light.”

“[Pride and power] are the same except that pride leaves the lights on and power can do it in the dark.”

“But the fair did more than simply stoke pride. It gave Chicago a light to hold against the gathering dark of economic calamity.”

″... where a light can’t live, I know I can’t. And I like to be safe when I can be. But all’s well that ends well.”

“The past rests, breathing faintly in the darkness. It no longer holds me as it used to; now I must reach back to touch it. It is night and I am alone and there is still time, a moment more. I am standing on a long black stage, with a circle of light on me, which is my love for you, enduring.”

“As every schoolboy knows, comics do not stand alone at microphones in the dark. Indeed, we cannot even read them in the dark. We need light, the more, the better.”

“Once I’d dreamed and breathed and thought in colour and light and shape.”

“Lost in a spiritual mist, the target will feel light and uninhibited. Deepen the effect of your seduction by making its sexual culmination seem like the spiritual union of two souls.”

“Where does ‘darkness’ leave off, and ‘light’ begin?”

“You’re my light. My guide.”

“When things are darkest, God shines his light the brightest.”

“Your soul once sat on an easel on my knee. For ages I have been sketching you With myriad shapes of sounds and light;”

“We breathe the light, we breathe the music, we breathe the moment as it passes through us.”

“Because you, mouse, can tell Gregory a story. Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.”

“It is true. Despereaux’s eyes should not have been open. But they were. He was staring at the sun reflecting off his mother’s mirror. The light was shining on the ceiling in an oval of brilliance, and he was smiling up at the sight.”

“He spent his days as he wanted: He wandered through the rooms of the castle, staring dreamily at the light streaming in through the stained-glass windows. He went to the library and read over and over again the story of the fair maiden and the knight who rescued her. And he discovered, finally, the source of the honey-sweet sound. The sound was music.”

“She was so sure, so present, so easy, so light and gold, while I was all gray and shadow. I was not ugly or monstrous. That might have been better. Monsters always command attention, if only for their freakishness. My parents would have wrung their hands and tried to make it up to me, as parents will with a handicapped or especially ugly child. Even Call, his nose too large for his small face, had a certain satisfactory ugliness.”

“Stop, dogs. Stop! The light is red now.”

“But there is a difference now, he thought—there really is a difference. I might be hit but I’m not done. When the light comes I’ll start to rebuild. I still have the hatchet and that’s all I had in the first place.”

“Big Bear settled in the Bear Chair and read his Bear Book, by the light of the fire.”

“Big Bear saw that Little Bear was right. Big Bear was puzzled. All the lanterns in the world couldn’t light up the dark outside.”

“Toad blinked in the bright sun. ‘Help!‘, said Toad. ‘I cannot see anything.’ ‘Don’t be silly,’ said Frog. ‘What you see is the clear warm light of April.’ ”

“That night Frog and Toad were both happy when they each turned out the light and went to bed.”

“Toad found some rope in the cellar. ‘I will pull Frog out of the hole with this,’ said Toad. Toad found a lantern in the attic. ‘Frog will see this light. I will show him the way out of the woods,’ said Toad. Toad found a frying pan in the kitchen. ‘I will hit that big animal with this,’ said Toad. ‘All of his teeth with fall out. Frog, do not worry,’ cried Toad. ‘I am coming to help you!’ “

“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker’s man, Bake me a cake as fast as you can, Carry it in on a beautiful plate And light up the candles- TODAY I AM EIGHT!”

“Like a great glaring eye, then, the light searched about. It flashed past the trees down the steep rocky bluff And it searched high and low, but not quite high enough.”

“He pulled Grimma up last. She was light. They were all light, if it came to that. You didn’t get rat every day.”

“At once, Shang lit the light and the wolf blew it out again, but Shang had seen the wolf’s hairy face.”

″‘What is this?’ said the Leopard, ‘that is so ‘sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light.‘”

“The light appeared to have the power to hold him and draw him into a perilous other world; it was so compelling. To his horror, he found that he was unable to resist.”

“And every year, folk come from all over Cornwall at Christmas time, to see Mousehole lit up with a thousand lights, shining their message of hope and a safe haven to all those who pass in peril of the sea.”

“Porch light! Let’s kiss Let’s clasp Let’s marry for trice!”

“Jubilant cicadas pouring out their fervent praise for heat and light.”

“I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn’t that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark.”

“Klara, do you think once we’re in the window, we’ll receive so much goodness we’ll never get short again?”

“Come rain... or shine he tended his light.”

“My body goes before me like a lantern down a dark lane, bringing one thing after another out of darkness into a ring of light. I dazzle you.”

“I will tell you only this: that you are one of the Old Ones, the first to have been born for five hundred years, and the last. And like all such, you are bound by nature to devote yourself to the long conflict between the Light and the Dark.”

“Who scatters snowflakes? Who melts the ice? Who spoils the weather? Who makes it nice? Who grows the four-leaf clovers in June? Who dims the daylight? Who lights the moon? Four little field mice who live in the sky. Four little field mice…like you and I.”

“I was his and he was mine, and we were the beginning and middle and end. We were a song that had been sung from the very first ember of light in the world.”

“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe.”

“No matter where life takes you, you will be like those stars--connected by the light you shine together.”

“Find the light that makes your lantern shine,” she used to say. “hold on to it, even when the dark surrounds you. Not even the strongest wind will blow out the flame.”

“Learn from my mistakes, [...] and learn from my joys. Surround yourself with those who’ll love you always, through your mistakes and your faults. Make a family that will find you more beautiful every day, even when your hair is white with age. Be the light that makes someone’s lantern shine.”

“Did you ever hear of Mickey, how he heard a racket in the night and shouted, ‘Quiet down there!’ and fell through the dark, out his clothes, past the moon & his mama & papa sleeping tight into the light of the night kitchen?”

“Find the light that makes your lantern shine,” she used to say. “hold on to it, even when the dark surrounds you. Not even the strongest wind will blow out the flame.”

“If the butterfly wings its way to the sweet light that attracts it, it’s only because it doesn’t know that the fire can consume it.”

“They removed their raincoats to reveal robes of all colors, all textures. It was a rainbow that summoned forth anything but thoughts of death. This, Citra realized, was intentional. Scythes wished to be seen as the many facets of light, not of darkness.”

“And at night by the light of the Mulberry Moon, they danced to the Flute of the Blue Baboon on the broad green leaves of the Crumpetty Tree and all were happy as happy could be with the Quangle Wangle Quee.”

“Everything in the world has two handles. Didn’t you know that? One is a smooth handle. If you take hold of it, the thing comes up lightly and easily, but if you seize the rough handle, it hurts your hand and the thing is hard to lift. Some people always manage to get hold of the wrong handle.”

“There was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long as he could see that, Diamond did not feel quite alone or lonely. But all at once, the light went almost out. Then indeed, he felt that it was dreadful to be out in the night alone, when every body else was gone to bed! That was more than he could bear and it was not strange that he burst out crying.”

“Perhaps she too felt the loneliness that came with the wind as it passed the cabin outside, and the closeness of the world whose farthest border in the night was the place where the lamp light ended, at the edge of the cabin walls.”

“His mind and heart were flooded with extraordinary light; all torment, all doubt, all anxieties were relieved at once, resolved in a kind of lofty calm, full of serene, harmonious joy and hope, full of understanding and the knowledge of the ultimate cause of things.”

“You should shine with all of your light all the time.”

“Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light?”

“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.”

“Way off in the distance she could see the lights of the city. The Little House was curious about the city and wondered what it would be like to live there.”

“This is the way I used to feel in Barbados, Kit thought with surprise. Light as air somehow. Here I’ve been working like a slave, much harder than I’ve ever worked in the onion fields, but I feel as though nothing mattered except just to be alive right at this moment.”

“But at that moment, I felt beautiful. Natural and cold and clean and crisp, I threw open the front door and called out for my mother. It was the last time in my life I remember feeling so light.”

“Light may be my one defining motive and the essence of my character, and my early years were simply flooded with it.”

“The diamond ring was very, very sparkly indeed. My little sister turned it and turned it, and lots of shiny lights came out of it in all directions. Sometimes the lights were white and sometimes they had colours in them. My sister couldn’t stop looking at it.”

“What can I say ? I’m a rose in the snow—the bright spot in your dark, seems-like-it’s-always-depressed life.”

“The boats saw the light and were safe.”

″‘Little brother, where is your light?’ ‘Am I brother of yours, bridge?’ wondered the lighthouse. ‘Your light was so bright that I thought mine was needed no more.‘”

“All these scents and sounds are part of the story I have to tell, with light and darkness, shadows and tragedy interwoven.”

“It’s dark where I am and I cannot find the light. There are shadows all around me and my heart is full of fright.”

“Another postmodern sunset, rich in romantic imagery. Why try to describe it? It’s enough to say that everything in our field of vision seemed to exist in order to gather the light of this event.”

“She felt a great commotion in the air around her--a great excitement, muted, waiting on the Lord. And the air seemed to tremble, as before a storm. A light seemed to hang--just above, and all around them--about to burst into revelation.”

“Yes, he had heard it all his life, but it was only now that his ears were opened to this sound that came from darkness, that could only come from darkness, that yet bore such sure witness to the glory of the light.”

“Would you like to denude the earth of all the trees and all the living beings in order to satisfy your fantasy of rejoicing in the naked light?”

“When you live in love and light, you will not go unseen; ignite the world with every flame of your being.”

“The light was draining out of the room, going back through the window where it had come from.”