"It was…he said, a principle in the history of the world, that evil should bring forth good, and his poor little cock-boat had been set adrift upon an ocean of blessing."
George MacDonald
(From "The Marquis of Lossie," CHAPTER LXX, THE DISCLOSURE)
"Have you a library?" asked Lady Joan—mainly to say something, for she was not particularly fond of books; like most people she had not yet learned to read."
George MacDonald
(From "Warlock o' Glenwarlock," CHAPTER XVI, THROUGH THE DAY)
----
What is it to really learn to read?
"A man must do a thing because it is right, even if he die for it; but truth were poor indeed if it did not bring at last all things subject to it! As beauty and truth are one, so are truth and strength one."
George MacDonald
(From "Donal Grant," CHAPTER XIV, THE SCHOOLROOM)
"Most men who learn would learn more, I suspect, if they had work to do, and difficulty in the way of learning."
George MacDonald
(From "There and Back," CHAPTER X, THE LIBRARY)
(From "Paul Faber, Surgeon," CHAPTER V, THE ROAD TO OWLKIRK)
"…actions in themselves good, however imperfect the motives that give rise to them, react blissfully upon character and nature. It is better to be an atheist who does the will of God, than a so-called Christian who does not."
George MacDonald
“. . . I hae had what’s ca’d a good education—though I hae learned mair frae my ain needs than frae a’ my buiks.”
[“. . . I have had what’s called a good education—though I have learned more from my own needs than from all my books.”]
George MacDonald
"…Life intelligently met and honestly passed, is the best education of all; except that higher one to which it is intended to lead…"
George MacDonald
(From "David Elginbrod," BOOK I, CHAPTER V, THE STUDENTS)
"…he did not know that there are many other educations besides a college one, some of them tending far more than that to develope the common-sense, or faculty of judging of things by their nature…"
(From "Guild Court," CHAPTER XI - MR. SIMON'S ATTEMPT)
"...and every thing ill done to the kingdom of darkness, surely even the irksomeness of his work will be no longer insuperable. But Thomas had never been taught this. He did not know that his day's work had anything to do with the saving of his soul.”
George MacDonald
“A man must do his duty, if he would be a free man, whether he likes it or not, and whether it is appreciated or not. But if he can regard it as the will of God, the work not fallen upon him by chance, but given him to do, understanding that every thing well done belongs to His kingdom..."
"Gibbie had been honoured with the acquaintance of many dogs, and the friendship of most of them, for a lover of humanity can hardly fail to be a lover of caninity… Mankind had disappointed him, but here was a dog!"
George MacDonald
(From "Sir Gibbie," CHAPTER VIII, SAMBO)
(From "Mary Marston," CHAPTER III, THE ARBOR AT THORNWICK)
"...the larks kept shooting aloft, there, like music-rockets, to explode in showers of glowing and sparkling song; while, all the time and over all, the sun as he went down kept shining in the might of his peace; and the heart of Mary praised her Father in heaven."
George MacDonald
"Sweet earthy odors rose about Mary from the wet ground; the rain-drops glittered on the grass and corn-blades and hedgerows; a soft damp wind breathed rather than blew about the gaps and gates; with an upward springing, like that of a fountain momently gathering strength..."
"...down, far down, below the thinking-place, down to the region of music, which is the hidden workshop of the soul, the place where lies ready the divine material for man to go making withal."
George MacDonald
(From "Mary Marston," CHAPTER XXXV, THE MUSICIAN)
"...when the rising waters of question retire to their bed, and individuality is still, then the dews and rains of music, finding the way clear for them, soak and sink through the sands of the mind..."
"It seems to me, at least, in my great ignorance, that one cannot understand music unless he is humble toward it, and consents, if need be, not to understand. When one is quiescent, submissive, opens the ears of the mind, and demands of them nothing more than the hearing—..."
(From "Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood," XVIII. LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS)
...and also to do what I can to get you to be sorry and make amends as far as you can.'
" '…you see, my boy, how kind God is in tying us up in one bundle that way. It is a grand & beautiful thing that the fathers should suffer for the children, and the children for the fathers.' "
George MacDonald
"...If I sin, you must suffer; if you sin, you being my own boy, I must suffer. But this is not all: it lies upon both of us to do what we can to get rid of the wrong done; and thus we have to bear each other’s sin. I am accountable to make amends as far as I can...
“ 'Papa,' I said, “why did you say we have done a wrong? You did not do it.'
“ 'My dear boy, persons who are so near each other as we are, must not only bear the consequences together of any wrong done by one of them, but must, in a sense, bear each other’s iniquities even..."
"I have no time to grow old," said the lady. "I am too busy for that. It is very idle to grow old."
George MacDonald
(From "The Golden Key")
"...pain and delight, ecstasy and despair minister in it; but amongst them there is none more marvellous in its potency than that mingling of all pains and pleasures to which we specially give the name of Love."
George MacDonald
(From "The Marquis of Lossie," CHAPTER XLIII, A PERPLEXITY)
"…She slept little during the night, starting awake as often as she began to slumber, and before the morning came was a good deal humbled. All sorts of means are kept at work to make the children obedient and simple and noble. Joy and sorrow are servants in God’s nursery..."
"Some of our thoughts are worth nothing, because they've got no soul in them. The brain puts them into the mind, not the mind into the brain."
George MacDonald
(From "At the Back of the North Wind," CHAPTER XXXVII, ONCE MORE)
(From "St.George and St. Michael," CHAPTER XLVI, GIFTS OF HEALING)
Edmund Waller's poem, "Of the Last Verses in the Book," that MacDonald quotes from, can be found at the following link:
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45439/...
"...The cure was a deeper and harder matter than Dr. Bayly yet understood, or than probably Rowland himself would for years attain to, while yet the least glimmer of its approach would be enough to initiate physical recovery."
George MacDonald
