--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: People walk the paths of the gardens…" description: "\"“People walk the paths of the gardens below, and the wind sings anthems in the hedges, and the big old cedars at the entrance to the maze creak. Marie-..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12f/anthony-doerr-886_connectedness_people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-bel_1247151.jpg" --- # People walk the paths of the gardens below, and the wind… ![“People walk the paths of the gardens below, and the wind sings anthems in the hedges, and the big old cedars at the entrance to the maze creak. Marie-Laure imagines the electromagnetic waves traveling into and out of Michel’s machine, bending around them, just as Etienne used to describe, except…” quote by Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12f/anthony-doerr-886_connectedness_people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-bel_1247151.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12f/anthony-doerr-886_connectedness_people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-bel_1247151.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12f/anthony-doerr-886_connectedness_people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-bel_1247151.jpg) > ““People walk the paths of the gardens below, and the wind sings anthems in the hedges, and the big old cedars at the entrance to the maze creak. Marie-Laure imagines the electromagnetic waves traveling into and out of Michel’s machine, bending around them, just as Etienne used to describe, except now a thousand times more crisscross the air than when he lived - maybe a million times more. Torrents of text conversations, tides of cell conversations, of televisions programs, of e-mails, vast networks of fiber and wire interlaced above and beneath the city, passing through buildings, arcing between transmitters in Metro tunnels, between antennas atop buildings, from lampposts with cellular transmitters in them, commercials for Carrefour and Evian and prebaked toaster pastries flashing into space and back to earth again, I am going to be late and Maybe we should get reservations? and Pick up avocados and What did he say? and ten thousand I miss yous, fifty thousand I love yous, hate mail and appointment reminders and market updates, jewelry ads, coffee ads, furniture ads flying invisibly over the warrens of Paris, over the battlefields and tombs, over the Ardennes, over the Rhine, over Belgium and Denmark, over the scarred and ever-shifting landscape we call nations. And is it so hard to believe that souls might also travel those paths? That her father and Etienne and Madame Manec and the German boy named Werner Pfennig might harry the sky in flocks, like egrets, like terns, like starlings? That great shuttles of souls might fly about, faded but audible if you listen closely enough? They flow above the chimneys, ride the sidewalks, slip through your jacket and shirt and breastbone and lungs, and pass out through the other side, the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it. Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world. We rise again in the grass. In the flowers. In songs.”” [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage portrays modern communication as an invisible, pervasive network that carries both mundane and profound human experiences, suggesting that souls may travel these data streams like birds. **In simple terms:** Data flows like an invisible web connecting lives. Key Takeaway Recognize the humanity behind every digital message. Themes communication technology humanity memory war Mood reflective melancholic inquisitive Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - reading literature - reflecting on digital overload - considering privacy - thinking about war memory - contemplating connectivity Key Concepts information theory network theory collective consciousness Questions to Reflect On - How does constant connectivity shape our sense of self? - What responsibilities arise from being part of a global data network? A Different Perspective The metaphor may over‑romanticize technology, ignoring its harms. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Connectedness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/connectedness/) [Electromagnetic waves](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/electromagnetic-waves/) [Electromagnetic-wave](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/electromagnetic-wave/) [Hate mail](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hate-mail/) [Memories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memories/) [Souls](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/souls/) [Universe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/universe/) [War](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/war/) ## Related quotes > [“...the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/the-air-a-library-and-the-record-of-every-life-lived-every-sentence/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“There was thin, reverberating silence; the sort of delicately plucked note that isn’t heard, but felt in the heart.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kirsty-eagar/there-was-thin-reverberating-silence-the-sort-of-delicately-plucked/) [Kirsty Eagar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kirsty-eagar/) > [I try to be after something that is deeply reverberating inside of our souls, some deep echo from - even from prehistory. What makes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/werner-herzog/i-try-to-be-after-something-that-is-deeply-reverberating-inside-of/) [Werner Herzog](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/werner-herzog/) > [We are each a concert reverberating with our whole lives and reflecting and amplifying the world around us.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie-goldberg/we-are-each-a-concert-reverberating-with-our-whole-lives-and/) [Natalie Goldberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie-goldberg/) > [“He was little more than halfway down the staircase when he heard an all-piercing, sustained scream--clearly coming from a small, female child. It was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-d-salinger/he-was-little-more-than-halfway-down-the-staircase-when-he-heard-an/) [J.D. 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Increasing, reducing or removing the natural radiation exposures results in a sickened human that may…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/the-human-has-genetic-adaptation-to-natural-electromagnetic-radiation/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“Dark Energy is poorly understood and it is clear that we are currently moving into exploring the complete electromagnetic spectrum that also includes the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/dark-energy-is-poorly-understood-and-it-is-clear-that-we-are/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“We are in the process of finding out what filling billions of acres with electrified glass that emits electromagnetic intereference (EMI) does to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/we-are-in-the-process-of-finding-out-what-filling-billions-of-acres/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“The human skin evolved in a natural electromagnetic radiation environment and is now in a very unnatural man-made one that is making many people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/the-human-skin-evolved-in-a-natural-electromagnetic-radiation/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“The leading research in the adverse human health effects of electromagnetic radiation is not being done by well funded governments or corporations, it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/the-leading-research-in-the-adverse-human-health-effects-of/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“With the development of utility electricity for the masses in the 1900's, very few people realize that a new era of sickness and disease…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/with-the-development-of-utility-electricity-for-the-masses-in-the/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) ## More by Anthony Doerr > [I was a nerdy kid.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/i-was-a-nerdy-kid/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“he moved neither forward nor backward in time, but merely endured variations of the same day over and over. Maybe he was the one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/he-moved-neither-forward-nor-backward-in-time-but-merely-endured/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“Open your eyes, the Frenchman on the radio used to say, and see what you can with them before they close forever.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/open-your-eyes-the-frenchman-on-the-radio-used-to-say-and-see-what/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“Just when we think we have a system, ...the system collapses. Just when we know our way around, we get lost. Just when we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/just-when-we-think-we-have-a-system-the-system-collapses-just-when-we/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“An hour passed and another and then, like a glass of water overfilled - the meniscus inverting, going convex, gravity pulling at the edges,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/an-hour-passed-and-another-and-then-like-a-glass-of-water-overfilled/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“For dinner, he orders wild boar cooked with fresh mushrooms. And a full bottle of Bordeaux. Especially during wartime, such things remain important. They…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/for-dinner-he-orders-wild-boar-cooked-with-fresh-mushrooms-and-a-full/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“Do you know what happens, Etienne,” says Madame Manec from the other side of the kitchen, “when you drop a frog in a pot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/do-you-know-what-happens-etienne-says-madame-manec-from-the-other/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“You ever hope for something so much? So much you can't sleep, so much your skull hurts? But the thing is, you don't even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/you-ever-hope-for-something-so-much-so-much-you-can-t-sleep-so-much/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“Hope was a sunrise, a friend in the alley, a whisper in an empty corridor.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/hope-was-a-sunrise-a-friend-in-the-alley-a-whisper-in-an-empty/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/time-is-a-slippery-thing-lose-hold-of-it-once-and-its-string-might/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“...the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/the-air-a-library-and-the-record-of-every-life-lived-every-sentence/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“silent desperation of everything they never said - gaps and absences in every conversation, the past circumscribing the present, the future hemming in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/silent-desperation-of-everything-they-never-said-gaps-and-absences-in/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [“She is in charge of everything, but no one knows. It is a tremendous burden, she says, to be responsible for every little thing,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/she-is-in-charge-of-everything-but-no-one-knows-it-is-a-tremendous/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [I guess you could say I've been writing all my life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/i-guess-you-could-say-i-ve-been-writing-all-my-life/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) > [Only Numbers. Pure math. You have to accustom yourself to thinking that way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/only-numbers-pure-math-you-have-to-accustom-yourself-to-thinking-that/) [Anthony Doerr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) [Explore all 336 Anthony Doerr quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/) ## More Connectedness quotes > [The key is to be in a state of permanent connectedness with your inner body - to feel it at all times. This will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eckhart-tolle/the-key-is-to-be-in-a-state-of-permanent-connectedness-with-your/) [Eckhart Tolle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eckhart-tolle/) > [We started off with physical evolution and got our form. Then we somehow developed language, which meant cultural evolution could race so we could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-goodall/we-started-off-with-physical-evolution-and-got-our-form-then-we/) [Jane Goodall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-goodall/) > [“Sitting outside on a dark night, under the stars, invites confidences amongst people of all ages, and all walks of life. It invokes an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-b-shepherd/sitting-outside-on-a-dark-night-under-the-stars-invites-confidences/) [A.B. Shepherd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-b-shepherd/) > [Wisdom is always connected to beauty. When you see someone acting by their principles, their wisdom makes them beautiful.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tariq-ramadan/wisdom-is-always-connected-to-beauty-when-you-see-someone-acting-by/) [Tariq Ramadan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tariq-ramadan/) > [Only through our connectedness to others can we really know and enhance the self. And only through working on the self can we begin…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/only-through-our-connectedness-to-others-can-we-really-know-and/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [They are the kinds of things that make us a community: attachment to place, attachment to local arts traditions, the ability to read literature,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/they-are-the-kinds-of-things-that-make-us-a-community-attachment-to/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [Be at Peace with Everyone - No one is capable of making you upset without your consent, so if you begin practicing the intention…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wayne-dyer/be-at-peace-with-everyone-no-one-is-capable-of-making-you-upset/) [Wayne Dyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wayne-dyer/) > [“Travel opens us up, exposes us to new people and places. New thoughts, new ways of being and a larger feeling of connection. And,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erin-kouvas/travel-opens-us-up-exposes-us-to-new-people-and-places-new-thoughts/) Erin Kouvas > [“I miss that feeling of connection. Knowing he was out there somewhere thinking about me at the same time I was thinking about him.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ranata-suzuki/i-miss-that-feeling-of-connection-knowing-he-was-out-there-somewhere/) [Ranata Suzuki](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ranata-suzuki/) > [Letting the last breath come. Letting the last breath go. Dissolving, dissolving into vast space, the light body released from its heavier form. A…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-levine/letting-the-last-breath-come-letting-the-last-breath-go-dissolving/) [Stephen Levine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-levine/) > [“We all have the same root, and are connected... To tap into this connectedness we must go within.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/summerlyn-guthrie/we-all-have-the-same-root-and-are-connected-to-tap-into-this/) Summerlyn Guthrie > [I set out to really build this universe of interfaith connectedness, where people could see that other people in different parts of the world…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oprah-winfrey/i-set-out-to-really-build-this-universe-of-interfaith-connectedness/) [Oprah Winfrey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oprah-winfrey/) > [In a sense the physical connectedness that you feel with your children as a mother changes as they become independent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/polixeni-papapetrou/in-a-sense-the-physical-connectedness-that-you-feel-with-your/) [Polixeni Papapetrou](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/polixeni-papapetrou/) > [Discovering the connectedness of the Universe is the ultimate goal of enlightenment.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/senoraroy/discovering-the-connectedness-of-the-universe-is-the-ultimate-goal-of/) Senoraroy > [Trouble makes us one with every human being in the world - and unless we touch others, we're out of touch with life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/trouble-makes-us-one-with-every-human-being-in-the-world-and-unless/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) [Browse all 153 Connectedness quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/connectedness/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“People walk the paths of the gardens below, and the wind sings anthems in the hedges, and the big old cedars at the entrance to the maze creak. Marie-Laure imagines the electromagnetic waves traveling into and out of Michel’s machine, bending around them, just as Etienne used to describe, except now a thousand times more crisscross the air than when he lived - maybe a million times more. Torrents of text conversations, tides of cell conversations, of televisions programs, of e-mails, vast networks of fiber and wire interlaced above and beneath the city, passing through buildings, arcing between transmitters in Metro tunnels, between antennas atop buildings, from lampposts with cellular transmitters in them, commercials for Carrefour and Evian and prebaked toaster pastries flashing into space and back to earth again, I am going to be late and Maybe we should get reservations? and Pick up avocados and What did he say? and ten thousand I miss yous, fifty thousand I love yous, hate mail and appointment reminders and market updates, jewelry ads, coffee ads, furniture ads flying invisibly over the warrens of Paris, over the battlefields and tombs, over the Ardennes, over the Rhine, over Belgium and Denmark, over the scarred and ever-shifting landscape we call nations. And is it so hard to believe that souls might also travel those paths? That her father and Etienne and Madame Manec and the German boy named Werner Pfennig might harry the sky in flocks, like egrets, like terns, like starlings? That great shuttles of souls might fly about, faded but audible if you listen closely enough? They flow above the chimneys, ride the sidewalks, slip through your jacket and shirt and breastbone and lungs, and pass out through the other side, the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it. Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world. We rise again in the grass. In the flowers. In songs.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Anthony Doerr" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-below-and-the-wind-sings-anthems/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Connectedness" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-below-and-the-wind-sings-anthems/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12f/anthony-doerr-886_connectedness_people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-bel_1247151.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12f/anthony-doerr-886_connectedness_people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-bel_1247151.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12f/anthony-doerr-886_connectedness_people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-bel_1247151.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“People walk the paths of the gardens below, and the wind sings anthems in the hedges, and the big old cedars…” — Anthony Doerr", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "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": "Anthony Doerr", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-doerr/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“People walk the paths of the...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-below-and-the-wind-sings-anthems/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-doerr/people-walk-the-paths-of-the-gardens-below-and-the-wind-sings-anthems/#breadcrumb" }, { "@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 } } ] } ```