Parable of the Sower Quotes

“Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all.”

“All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you...God is change.”

“God is change, and in the end, God does prevail. But we have something to say about the whens and the whys of that end.”

“The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.”

“To get along with God, consider the consequences of your behavior”

“A biological conscience is better than no conscience at all”

“In order to rise from its own ashes a phoenix first must burn.”

“A lot of people seem to believe in a big-daddy-God or a big-cop-God or a big-king-God.”

“I’ve never felt that it was anything other than real: discovery rather than invention.”

“Lights, progress, growth, all those things we’re too hot and too poor to bother with anymore.”

“Bits of the Bible had...stayed with me even after I stop believing.”

“I looked at Natividad who sat a short distance away, on spread out sleepsacks, playing with her baby and talking to Zahra. She had been lucky. Did she know? How many other people were less lucky—unable to escape the master’s attentions or gain the mistress’s sympathies. How far did masters and mistresses go these days toward putting less than submissive servants in their places?”

“All struggles are essentially power struggles...two rams knocking their heads together.”

“They have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others...miserable.”

“Used to think...God was only good for helping people...stand what they had to.”

“Taking care of other people can be a god cure for nightmares.”

“We...decided to call this place Acorn.”

“Crazy to live without a wall to protect you. Even in Robledo, most of the street poor—squatters, winos, junkies, homeless people in general—are dangerous. They’re desperate or crazy or both. That’s enough to make anyone dangerous.”

“Moral: The weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist.”

“I like Curtis Talcott a lot. Maybe I love him. Sometimes I think I do. He says he loves me. But if all I had to look forward to was marriage to him and babies and poverty that just keeps getting worse, I think I’d kill myself.”