Nothing on earth is more gladdening than knowing we must roll up our sleeves and move back the boundaries of the humanly… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Say you could view a time lapse film of our planet: what would you see? Transparent images moving through light, “an infinite… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Nature's silence is its one remark, and every flake of world is a chip off that old mute and immutable block. The… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Nature's silence is its one remark, and every flake of world is a chip off that old mute and immutable block. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“An acre of poppies and a forest of spruce boggle no one’s mind. Even ten square miles of wheat gladdens the hearts… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Caring passionately about something isn't against nature, and it isn't against human nature. It's what we're here to do. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“I saw to the south a man walking. He was breaking ground in perfect silence. He wore a harness and pulled a… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
You can, in short, lead the life of the mind, which is, despite some appalling frustrations, the happiest life on earth. And… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
The point of the dragonfly's terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows,is not… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
As a thinker I keep discovering that beauty itself is as much a fact, and a mystery...I consider nature's facts -- its… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
There must be bands of enthusiasts for everything on earth-fanatics who shared a vocabulary, a batch of technical skills and equipment, and,… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“I have often noticed that these things, which obsess me, neither bother nor impress other people even slightly. I am horribly apt… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Chloroplasts bear chlorophyll; they give the green world its color, and they carry out the business of photosynthesis. Around the inside perimeter… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“I am sitting under a sycamore by Tinker Creek. I am really here, alive on the intricate earth under trees. But under… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“I chanced on a wonderful book by Marius von Senden, called Space and Sight. . . . For the newly sighted, vision… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Out of a human population on earth of four and a half billion, perhaps twenty people can write a book in a… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“In the great meteor shower of August, the Perseid, I wail all day for the shooting stars I miss. They’re out there… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“In nature, improbabilities are the one stock in trade. The whole creation is one lunatic fringe. If creation had been left up… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Their song reminds me of a child’s neighborhood rallying cry—ee-ock-ee—with a heartfelt warble at the end. But it is their call that… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
We are here to abet creation and to witness to it, to notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“An infant is a pucker of the earth's thin skin; so are we. We arise like budding yeasts and break off: we… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent.” — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
Nothing moves a woman so deeply as the boyhood of the man she loves. — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“...The mockingbird took a single step into the air and dropped. His wings were still folded against his sides as though he were singing… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“Father had stretched out his long legs and was tilting back in his chair. Mother sat with her knees crossed, in blue slacks, smoking… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
It should surprise no one that the life of the writer - such as it is - is colorless to the point of sensory… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
The sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain. This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
“What can we make of the inexpressible joy of children? It is a kind of gratitude, I think—the gratitude of the ten-year-old who wakes… — Annie Dillard Copy Share Image
