For the things that are seen are temporal, but things that are unseen are eternal.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that material possessions and experiences are temporary, whereas the things that have true significance, like love and faith, last forever.
Madeleine L'Engle's quote emphasizes the contrast between the transient nature of the physical world and the enduring quality of the spiritual and emotional realms. It encourages individuals to focus on what truly matters—relationships, values, and beliefs—rather than becoming overly attached to fleeting material items or situations. This perspective invites a deeper reflection on the nature of existence and encourages a prioritization of the intangible aspects of life, which ultimately define our legacy.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about focusing on relationships rather than material possessions.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.
In the end, we are not the roles we play. We are the light that animates every soul in the dance we call life.
Food, in the end, in our own tradition, is something holy. It's not about nutrients and calories. It's about sharing. It's about honesty. It's about identity.
Do not imagine that an integral being has the ambition of enlightening the unaware or raising worldly people to the divine realm. To her, there is no self and other, and hence no one to be raised; no heaven and hell, and hence no destination.
We need to confront honestly the issue of scale... You may need a large corporation to run an airline or to manufacture cars, but you don't need a large corporation to raise a chicken or a hog. You don't need a large corporation to process local food or local timber and market it locally.
It is no longer simply the merchant prince, or the aristocratic monopoly, or even the employing class, that is exploiting the world: it is the nation, a new democratic nation composed of united capital and labor.
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