Gilead Quotes & Sayings

There have been heroes here, and saints and martyrs and I want you to know that. Because that is the truth even if no one remembers it. To look at the lace, it's just a cluster of houses strung along a few roads, and a little row of brick buildings with stores in them, and a grain elevator and a water tower with Gilead written on its side, and the post office and the schools and the playing fields and the old train station, which is pretty well gone to weeds now. But what must Galilee have looks like? You can't tell so much from the appearance of a place. — Marilynne Robinson

Tell me truly, I implore
Is there
is there balm in Gilead?
tell me
tell me, I implore! — Edgar Allan Poe

Jephthah called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, 'Let me cross over,' the men of Gilead asked him, 'Are you an Ephraimite?' If he replied, 'No,' they said, 'All right, say Shibboleth.' If he said, 'Sibboleth,' because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Fourty-thousand were killed at the time.
- Judges 12:4-6 — Edwidge Danticat

On the other side of Mid-World, Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger, had drawn this divided woman to him and had created a third, who was far better, far stronger, than either of the previous two. — Stephen King

Hair is like a flock of goatsstreaming down Mount Gilead. b — Anonymous

It is one of the best traits of good people that they love where they pity. And this is truer of women than of men. — Marilynne Robinson

My grandfather once told her if you couldn't read with cold feet, there wouldn't be a literate soul in the state of Maine. — Marilynne Robinson

First comes smiles, then lies. Last is gunfire.-Roland Deschain, of Gilead — Stephen King

There was a saying in Gilead: Let evil wait for the day on which it must fall." "Uh-huh," Eddie said. "There was a saying in Brooklyn: You can't get snot off a suede jacket. — Stephen King

As the architects of Gilead knew, to institute an effective totalitarian system or indeed any system at all you must offer some benefits and freedoms, at least to a privileged few, in return for those you remove. — Margaret Atwood

Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. — Anonymous

There is a balm in Gilead," she read from the back, "to make the wounded whole - " "There's power enough in Heaven / To cure a sin-sick soul. — Louise Penny

The Seer pulled out a flask and removed the cap. Saul knelt before the Seer. Samuel poured the contents of the flask over Saul's head. The anointing oil flowed down over his face and beard. The crowd noise increased again. Samuel cried out, "Behold the man of Yahweh's choosing. Behold your king!" And the mass of Israelite leaders all responded, "LONG LIVE THE KING!" When the crowd died down in its applause, Samuel announced, "Hear O Israel! I have received word that the Ammonites have besieged the city of Jabesh-gilead. But I am no longer your judge over you. Hear now the words of your king! — Brian Godawa

There will be water if God wills it. — Stephen King

Roland of Gilead responded as he ever had and ever would when such useless, mystifying questions were raised: 'Ka. — Stephen King

One of Mom's favorite passages from Gilead was: "This is an important thing, which I have told many people, and which my father told me, and which his father told him. When you encounter another person, when you have dealings with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put to you. So you must think, what is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation.?" ... But the question from Gilead, Mom said, was always the thing you needed to ask yourself: "What is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation?" It helped you remember that people aren't here for you; everyone is here for one another. — Will Schwalbe

He looked back at them, and Eddie saw something he had never expected to see in his life - not even if that life stretched over a thousand years. Roland of Gilead was weeping. — Stephen King

Its racist policies, for instance, were firmly rooted in the pre-Gilead period, and racist fears provided some of the emotional fuel that allowed the Gilead takeover to succeed as well as it did. Our — Margaret Atwood

The Cross was the place of your spiritual birth; it must ever be the spot for renewing your health, for it is the sanatorium of every sin-sick soul. The blood is the true balm of Gilead; it is the only catholicon [remedy] which heals every spiritual disease. — Charles Spurgeon

Let evil wait for the day on which it must fall. — Stephen King

What book(s) changed your life and why? I could probably list books for days, so I'll just list a few favorites: The Giver by Lois Lowry, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, 1984 by George Orwell, the Bible, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, and Juliet by Andras Visky (which is a play, but I think it still counts). — Veronica Roth

There is no balm of Gilead, No salve, no soothing ointment To stay the pain of one who's had In love a disappointment
Unless it be that healing lotion Of fixing on a new devotion. — Richard Armour

There is no balm in Gilead, but there is balm in God. There is no physician among the creatures, but the Creator is Jehovah-rophi. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Thee's a good man, Roland of Gilead." He considered this, then slowly shook his head. "All my life I've had the fastest hands, but at being good I was always a little too slow." She — Stephen King

There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole. — Louise Penny

VERY WELL, ROLAND OF GILEAD.
'VERY WELL, EDDIE OF NEW YORK.
'VERY WELL, SUSANNAH OF NEW YORK.
'VERY WELL, JAKE OF NEW YORK.
'VERY WELL, OY OF MID-WORLD. — Stephen King

There was little that was truly original or indigenous to Gilead. Its genius was synthesis. — Margaret Atwood

For Gilead and the Calla!" he roared. "Now, gunslingers! Now, you Sisters of Oriza! Now, now! Kill them! No Quarter! Kill them all! — Stephen King

God's Word never fails. He will always heal you if you dare to believe Him. Men are searching everywhere today for things with which they can heal themselves, and they ignore the fact that the Balm of Gilead (Jeremiah 8:22) is within easy reach. — Smith Wigglesworth

she said, when I wear these boots no one fucks with me
when I tie my past like a scarf around my throat
I can freeze the blood
of every naive and unabashed up-and-comer
when I slide on my desire like glowing black stockings
I can make the uninitiated beg
for the feel of raw and stinging wood
and when I slip my angry black leather belt
from its rusty hook
the ambitious and guileless cower
like a thousand condemned souls
when I close my fist, my rings golden
with a youth well spent
the warriors of Gilead surrender
with a breathless whimper
and when my shoulders
feel the rough comfort of my serape woven with the fibers
of a fierce and relentless vengeance
you will soon realize
these are not my clothes after all, she says,
they are warning signs — Daniel Ames

Gilead was the kind of town where dogs slept in the road for the sun and the warmth that lingered after the sun was gone, and the few cars that there were had to stop and honk until the dogs decided to get up and let them pass by. They'd go limping off to the side, lamed by the comfort they'd had to give up, and then they'd settle down again right where they were before. It really wasn't much of a town. — Marilynne Robinson

Any human face is a claim on you, because you can't help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant. I consider that to be one kind of vision, as mystical as any. — Marilynne Robinson

It seems to me that none of this stuff is mine, that I'm nothing but Roland of Gilead's fucking secretary. I know that's stupid, but a part of me sort of believes it. — Stephen King

Every thought of pity is like the balm of Gilead to our souls. — Clarence Darrow

In Gilead, the narrator's friend's son describes himself not as an atheist but in "state of categorical unbelief." He says, "I don't even believe God doesn't exist, if you see what I mean." I pointed this passage out to Mom and said it closely matched my own views
I just didn't think about religion. — Will Schwalbe

Youth is Gilead, in which is balm for every wound. — Ambrose Bierce