--- title: "11 Seeing Quotes By Annie Dillard" description: "11 Seeing quotes by Annie Dillard. Plus more from Annie Dillard and more Seeing sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c8/annie-dillard-509_breathless_it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being_950877.jpg" --- > [It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being-for-the-first-time-seen/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c8/annie-dillard-509_breathless_it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being_950877.jpg) > [“I want to climb up the blank blue dome as a man would storm the inside of a circus tent, wildly, dangling,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-want-to-climb-up-the-blank-blue-dome-as-a-man-would-storm-the/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5be/annie-dillard-509_risk_i-want-to-climb-up-the-blank-blue-dome-a_2070985.jpg) > [“The secret of seeing is, then the pearl of great price. If I thought he could teach me to find it and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/the-secret-of-seeing-is-then-the-pearl-of-great-price-if-i-thought-he/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f81/annie-dillard-509_landscape_the-secret-of-seeing-is-then-the-pearl-o_226229.jpg) > [“I have often noticed that these things, which obsess me, neither bother nor impress other people even slightly. I am horribly apt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-have-often-noticed-that-these-things-which-obsess-me-neither-bother/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02e/annie-dillard-509_amen_i-have-often-noticed-that-these-things-w_2352386.jpg) > [When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/when-i-was-six-or-seven-years-old-growing-up-in-pittsburgh-i-used-to/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/37c/annie-dillard-509_casts_when-i-was-six-or-seven-years-old-growin_1561733.jpg) > [“I chanced on a wonderful book by Marius von Senden, called Space and Sight. . . . For the newly sighted, vision…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-chanced-on-a-wonderful-book-by-marius-von-senden-called-space-and/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e31/annie-dillard-509_blindness_i-chanced-on-a-wonderful-book-by-marius_2803698.jpg) > [“What I aim to do is not so much learn the names of the shreds of creation that flourish in this valley,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/what-i-aim-to-do-is-not-so-much-learn-the-names-of-the-shreds-of/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ece/annie-dillard-509_astronomy_what-i-aim-to-do-is-not-so-much-learn-th_1857650.jpg) > [“I am sitting under a sycamore by Tinker Creek. I am really here, alive on the intricate earth under trees. But under…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-am-sitting-under-a-sycamore-by-tinker-creek-i-am-really-here-alive/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef6/annie-dillard-509_consciousness_i-am-sitting-under-a-sycamore-by-tinker_2604582.jpg) > [“When her doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw “the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/when-her-doctor-took-her-bandages-off-and-led-her-into-the-garden-the/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3d5/annie-dillard-509_exhilaration_when-her-doctor-took-her-bandages-off-an_1286121.jpg) > [“Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/thomas-merton-wrote-there-is-always-a-temptation-to-diddle-around-in/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/798/annie-dillard-509_friendship_thomas-merton-wrote-there-is-always-a-te_714004.jpg) > [“Say you could view a time lapse film of our planet: what would you see? Transparent images moving through light, “an infinite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/say-you-could-view-a-time-lapse-film-of-our-planet-what-would-you-see/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/870/annie-dillard-509_history_say-you-could-view-a-time-lapse-film-of_1688498.jpg) ## Other authors on Seeing ## More by Annie Dillard > [Like everyone in his right mind, I feared Santa Claus.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/like-everyone-in-his-right-mind-i-feared-santa-claus/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [“This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/this-is-a-spendthrift-economy-though-nothing-is-lost-all-is-spent/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [The creatures I seek do not want to be seen.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/the-creatures-i-seek-do-not-want-to-be-seen/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [Nothing moves a woman so deeply as the boyhood of the man she loves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/nothing-moves-a-woman-so-deeply-as-the-boyhood-of-the-man-she-loves/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/we-live-in-all-we-seek-the-hidden-shows-up-in-too-plain-sight-it/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [“...The mockingbird took a single step into the air and dropped. His wings were still folded against his sides as though he were singing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/the-mockingbird-took-a-single-step-into-the-air-and-dropped-his-wings/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [“Father had stretched out his long legs and was tilting back in his chair. Mother sat with her knees crossed, in blue slacks, smoking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/father-had-stretched-out-his-long-legs-and-was-tilting-back-in-his/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-am-a-frayed-and-nibbled-survivor-in-a-fallen-world-and-i-am-getting/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [It should surprise no one that the life of the writer - such as it is - is colorless to the point of sensory…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/it-should-surprise-no-one-that-the-life-of-the-writer-such-as-it-is/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/it-is-madness-to-wear-ladies-straw-hats-and-velvet-hats-to-church-we/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/the-sense-impressions-of-one-celled-animals-are-not-edited-for-the/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/what-can-we-make-of-the-inexpressible-joy-of-children-it-is-a-kind-of/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [“If we were to judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature, improbabilities are the one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/if-we-were-to-judge-nature-by-its-common-sense-or-likelihood-we/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [For writing a first draft requires from the writer a peculiar internal state which ordinary life does not induce. ... how to set yourself spinning?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/for-writing-a-first-draft-requires-from-the-writer-a-peculiar/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) > [I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-am-a-fugitive-and-a-vagabond-a-sojourner-seeking-signs/) [Annie Dillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-dillard/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/annie-dillard/#itemlist", "name": "11 Seeing Quotes By Annie Dillard", "numberOfItems": 11, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being-for-the-first-time-seen/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c8/annie-dillard-509_breathless_it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being_950877.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c8/annie-dillard-509_breathless_it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being_950877.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c8/annie-dillard-509_breathless_it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being_950877.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I want to climb up the blank blue dome as a man would storm the inside of a circus tent, wildly, dangling, and with a steel knife claw a rent in the top, peep, and, if I must, fall.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-want-to-climb-up-the-blank-blue-dome-as-a-man-would-storm-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5be/annie-dillard-509_risk_i-want-to-climb-up-the-blank-blue-dome-a_2070985.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5be/annie-dillard-509_risk_i-want-to-climb-up-the-blank-blue-dome-a_2070985.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5be/annie-dillard-509_risk_i-want-to-climb-up-the-blank-blue-dome-a_2070985.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I want to climb up the blank blue dome as a man would storm the inside of a circus tent, wildly, dangling…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The secret of seeing is, then the pearl of great price. If I thought he could teach me to find it and keep it forever I would stagger barefoot across a hundred deserts after any lunatic at all. But although the pearl may be found, it may not be sought. The literature of illumination reveals this above all: although it comes to those who wait for it, it is always, even to the most practiced and adept, a gift and a total surprise. I return from one walk knowing where the killdeer nests in the field by the creek and the hour the laurel blooms. I return form the same walk a day later scarcely knowing my own name. Litanies hum in my ears; my tongue flaps in my mouth. Ailinon, alleluia!”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/the-secret-of-seeing-is-then-the-pearl-of-great-price-if-i-thought-he/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f81/annie-dillard-509_landscape_the-secret-of-seeing-is-then-the-pearl-o_226229.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f81/annie-dillard-509_landscape_the-secret-of-seeing-is-then-the-pearl-o_226229.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f81/annie-dillard-509_landscape_the-secret-of-seeing-is-then-the-pearl-o_226229.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The secret of seeing is, then the pearl of great price. If I thought he could teach me to find it and keep…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I have often noticed that these things, which obsess me, neither bother nor impress other people even slightly. I am horribly apt to approach some innocent at a gathering, and like the ancient mariner, fix him with a wild, glitt’ring eye and say, “Do you know that in the head of the caterpillar of the ordinary goat moth there are two hundred twenty-eight separate muscles?” The poor wretch flees. I am not making chatter; I mean to change his life.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-have-often-noticed-that-these-things-which-obsess-me-neither-bother/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02e/annie-dillard-509_amen_i-have-often-noticed-that-these-things-w_2352386.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02e/annie-dillard-509_amen_i-have-often-noticed-that-these-things-w_2352386.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02e/annie-dillard-509_amen_i-have-often-noticed-that-these-things-w_2352386.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I have often noticed that these things, which obsess me, neither bother nor impress other people even…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. I was greatly excited at the thought of the first lucky passerby who would receive a gift in this way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe. . . . I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/when-i-was-six-or-seven-years-old-growing-up-in-pittsburgh-i-used-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/37c/annie-dillard-509_casts_when-i-was-six-or-seven-years-old-growin_1561733.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/37c/annie-dillard-509_casts_when-i-was-six-or-seven-years-old-growin_1561733.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/37c/annie-dillard-509_casts_when-i-was-six-or-seven-years-old-growin_1561733.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I chanced on a wonderful book by Marius von Senden, called Space and Sight. . . . For the newly sighted, vision is pure sensation unencumbered by meaning: \"The girl went through the experience that we all go through and forget, the moment we are born. She saw, but it did not mean anything but a lot of different kinds of brightness.\" . . . In general the newly sighted see the world as a dazzle of color-patches. They are pleased by the sensation of color, and learn quickly to name the colors, but the rest of seeing is tormentingly difficult. . . . The mental effort involved . . . proves overwhelming for many patients. It oppresses them to realize, if they ever do at all, the tremendous size of the world, which they had previously conceived of as something touchingly manageable. . . . A disheartening number of them refuse to use their new vision, continuing to go over objects with their tongues, and lapsing into apathy and despair. . . . On the other hand, many newly sighted people speak well of the world, and teach us how dull is our own vision.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-chanced-on-a-wonderful-book-by-marius-von-senden-called-space-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e31/annie-dillard-509_blindness_i-chanced-on-a-wonderful-book-by-marius_2803698.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e31/annie-dillard-509_blindness_i-chanced-on-a-wonderful-book-by-marius_2803698.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e31/annie-dillard-509_blindness_i-chanced-on-a-wonderful-book-by-marius_2803698.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I chanced on a wonderful book by Marius von Senden, called Space and Sight. . . . For the newly sighted…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What I aim to do is not so much learn the names of the shreds of creation that flourish in this valley, but to keep myself open to their meanings, which is to try to impress myself at all times with the fullest possible force of their very reality. I want to have things as multiply and intricately as possible present and visible in my mind. Then I might be able to sit on the hill by the burnt books where the starlings fly over, and see not only the starlings, the grass field, the quarried rock, the viney woods, Hollins pond, and the mountains beyond, but also, and simultaneously, feathers’ barbs, springtails in the soil, crystal in rock, chloroplasts streaming, rotifers pulsing, and the shape of the air in the pines. And, if I try to keep my eye on quantum physics, if I try to keep up with astronomy and cosmology, and really believe it all, I might ultimately be able to make out the landscape of the universe. Why not?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/what-i-aim-to-do-is-not-so-much-learn-the-names-of-the-shreds-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ece/annie-dillard-509_astronomy_what-i-aim-to-do-is-not-so-much-learn-th_1857650.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ece/annie-dillard-509_astronomy_what-i-aim-to-do-is-not-so-much-learn-th_1857650.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ece/annie-dillard-509_astronomy_what-i-aim-to-do-is-not-so-much-learn-th_1857650.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What I aim to do is not so much learn the names of the shreds of creation that flourish in this valley, but…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I am sitting under a sycamore by Tinker Creek. I am really here, alive on the intricate earth under trees. But under me, directly under the weight of my body on the grass, are other creatures, just as real, for whom also this moment, this tree, is “it”… in the top inch of soil, biologists found “an average of 1,356 living creatures in each square foot… I might as well include these creatures in this moment, as best as I can. My ignoring them won’t strip them of their reality, and admitting them, one by one, into my consciousness might heighten mine, might add their dim awareness to my human consciousness, such as it is, and set up a buzz, a vibration…Hasidism has a tradition that one of man’s purposes is to assist God in the work of “hallowing” the things of Creation. By a tremendous heave of the spirit, the devout man frees the divine sparks trapped in the mute things of time; he uplifts the forms and moments of creation, bearing them aloft into the rare air and hallowing fire in which all clays must shatter and burst.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/i-am-sitting-under-a-sycamore-by-tinker-creek-i-am-really-here-alive/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef6/annie-dillard-509_consciousness_i-am-sitting-under-a-sycamore-by-tinker_2604582.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef6/annie-dillard-509_consciousness_i-am-sitting-under-a-sycamore-by-tinker_2604582.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef6/annie-dillard-509_consciousness_i-am-sitting-under-a-sycamore-by-tinker_2604582.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I am sitting under a sycamore by Tinker Creek. I am really here, alive on the intricate earth under trees…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“When her doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw “the tree with the lights in it.” It was for this tree I searched through the peach orchards of summer, in the forests of fall and down winter and spring for years. Then one day I was walking along Tinker creek and thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it. I saw the backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing that like being for the first time see, knocked breathless by a powerful glance. The flood of fire abated, but I’m still spending the power. Gradually the lights went out in the cedar, the colors died, the cells un-flamed and disappeared. I was still ringing. I had been my whole life a bell and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck. I have since only very rarely seen the tree with the lights in it. The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I live for it, for the moment the mountains open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/when-her-doctor-took-her-bandages-off-and-led-her-into-the-garden-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3d5/annie-dillard-509_exhilaration_when-her-doctor-took-her-bandages-off-an_1286121.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3d5/annie-dillard-509_exhilaration_when-her-doctor-took-her-bandages-off-an_1286121.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3d5/annie-dillard-509_exhilaration_when-her-doctor-took-her-bandages-off-an_1286121.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When her doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw “the…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage. I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus. Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock-more than a maple- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/thomas-merton-wrote-there-is-always-a-temptation-to-diddle-around-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/798/annie-dillard-509_friendship_thomas-merton-wrote-there-is-always-a-te_714004.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/798/annie-dillard-509_friendship_thomas-merton-wrote-there-is-always-a-te_714004.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/798/annie-dillard-509_friendship_thomas-merton-wrote-there-is-always-a-te_714004.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Say you could view a time lapse film of our planet: what would you see? Transparent images moving through light, “an infinite storm of beauty.” The beginning is swaddled in mists, blasted by random blinding flashes. Lava pours and cools; seas boil and flood. Clouds materialize and shift; now you can see the earth’s face through only random patches of clarity. The land shudders and splits, like pack ice rent by widening lead. Mountains burst up, jutting, and dull and soften before your eyes, clothed in forests like felt. The ice rolls up, grinding green land under water forever; the ice rolls back. Forests erupt and disappear like fairy rings. The ice rolls up- mountains are mowed into lakes, land rises wet from the sea like a surfacing whale- the ice rolls back. A blue-green streaks the highest ridges, a yellow-green spreads from the south like a wave up a strand. A red dye seems to leak from the north down the ridges and into the valleys, seeping south; a white follows the red, then yellow-green washes north, then red spreads again, then white, over and over, making patterns of color too intricate to follow. Slow the film. You see dust storms, locusts, floods, in dizzying flash-frames. Zero in on a well-watered shore and see smoke from fires drifting. Stone cities rise, spread, and crumble, like paths of alpine blossoms that flourish for a day an inch above the permafrost, that iced earth no root can suck, and wither in a hour. New cities appear, and rivers sift silt onto their rooftops; more cities emerge and spread in lobes like lichen on rock. The great human figures of history, those intricate, spirited tissues whose split second in the light was too brief an exposure to yield any image but the hunched shadowless figures of ghosts. Slow it down more, come closer still. A dot appears, a flesh-flake. It swells like a balloon; it moves, circles, slows, and vanishes. This is your life.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Annie Dillard" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-dillard/say-you-could-view-a-time-lapse-film-of-our-planet-what-would-you-see/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/870/annie-dillard-509_history_say-you-could-view-a-time-lapse-film-of_1688498.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/870/annie-dillard-509_history_say-you-could-view-a-time-lapse-film-of_1688498.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/870/annie-dillard-509_history_say-you-could-view-a-time-lapse-film-of_1688498.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Say you could view a time lapse film of our planet: what would you see? Transparent images moving through…” — Annie Dillard", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/annie-dillard/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/annie-dillard/", "name": "Seeing Quotes by Annie Dillard", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/annie-dillard/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c8/annie-dillard-509_breathless_it-was-less-like-seeing-than-like-being_950877.jpg" }, "description": "11 Seeing quotes by Annie Dillard. Plus more from Annie Dillard and more Seeing sayings from other authors.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/annie-dillard/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/annie-dillard/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Seeing", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Annie Dillard", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seeing/annie-dillard/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```