Lettie Quotes & Sayings

God finds His best soldiers on the mountain of affliction. — Lettie B. Cowman

We climbed the height by the zigzag path And wondered why - until We understood it was made zigzag To break the force of the hill. A road straight up would prove too steep For the traveler's feet to tread; The thought was kind in its wise design Of a zigzag path instead. It is often so in our daily life; We fail to understand That the twisting way our feet must tread By love alone was planned. Then murmur not at the winding way, It is our Father's will To lead us Home by the zigzag path, To break the force of the hill. ANONYMOUS — Lettie B. Cowman

When God wants to make a man, he puts him into some storm. — Lettie Cowman

All my springs of joy are in you" (Ps. 87:7 NASB). — Lettie B. Cowman

Deep within the center of the soul is a chamber of peace where God lives and where, if we will enter it and quiet all the other sounds, we can hear His "gentle whisper" (1 Kings 19:12). — Lettie B. Cowman

When God sends no answer and "the cloud remain[s]," we must wait. Yet we can do so with the full assurance of God's provision of manna, water from the rock, shelter, and protection from our enemies. He never keeps us at our post without assuring us of His presence or sending us daily supplies. — Lettie B. Cowman

Strong minds suffer without complaining; weak minds complain without suffering. — Lettie Cowman

That's the moon,' I said.
'Gran likes it like that,' said Lettie Hempstock.
'But it was a crescent moon yesterday. And now it's full. And it was raining. It is raining. But now it's not.'
'Gran likes the full moon to shine on this side of the house. She says it's restful, and it reminds her of when she was a girl,' said Lettie. 'And you don't trip on the stairs. — Neil Gaiman

This is one of the dangers of sorrow: that in our grief for those who are gone we lose our interest in those who are living, and slacken our zeal in the work which is allotted to us. — Lettie B. Cowman

God delights to disappoint man's fears. — Lettie Cowman

Trust God's Word and His power more than you trust your own feelings and experiences. Remember, your Rock is Christ, and it is the sea that ebbs and flows with the tides, not Him. — Lettie B. Cowman

Maybe. Just maybe ... Lettie smiled. That would do. It might be an impossible plan but it's worth a try. — Sam Gayton

In times of uncertainty, wait. Always, if you have any doubt, wait. Do not force yourself to any action. If you have a restraint in your spirit, wait until all is clear, and do not go against it. — Lettie Cowman

When God wants to drill a man, And thrill a man, And skill a man, When God wants to mold a man To play the noblest part; When He yearns with all His heart To create so great and bold a man That all the world shall be amazed, Watch His methods, watch His ways! How He ruthlessly perfects Whom He royally elects! How He hammers him and hurts him, And with mighty blows converts him Into trial shapes of clay which Only God understands; While his tortured heart is crying And he lifts beseeching hands! How He bends but never breaks When his good He undertakes; How He uses whom He chooses, And with every purpose fuses him; But every act induces him To try His splendor out - God knows what He's about. SELECTED Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character. GOETHE — Lettie B. Cowman

You can come out, and we will end it, cleanly, or you can die in there, of hunger and of fear. And when you are dead your circle will mean nothing, and we will tear out your heart and take your soul for a keepsake."
"P'raps it will be like that," I said, to the darkness and the shadows, "and p'raps it won't. And p'raps if it is, it would have been like that anyway. I don't care. I'm still going to wait here for Lettie Hempstock, and she's going to come back to me. And if I die here, then I will die waiting for her, and that's a better way to go than you and all you stupid horrible things tearing me to bits because I've got something inside me that I don't even want!" (Ocean at the End of the Lane) — Neil Gaiman

Yet the Lord knows what is best for me, and my surroundings are determined by Him. Wherever He places me, He does so to strengthen my faith and power and to draw me into closer communion with Himself. And even if confined to a dungeon, my soul will prosper. — Lettie B. Cowman

You didn't bring us here,' Lettie said. 'We came because we wanted to. And I came to give you one last chance to go. — Neil Gaiman

In the deep jungles of Africa, a traveler was making a long trek. Coolies had been engaged from a tribe to carry the loads. The first day they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey. But the second morning these jungle tribesmen refused to move. For some strange reason they just sat and rested. On inquiry as to the reason for this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the first day, and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies. — Lettie Cowman

The second thing I thought was that I knew everything. Lettie Hempstock's ocean flowed inside me, and it filled the entire universe, from Egg to Rose. I knew that. I knew what Egg was - where the universe began, to the sound of the uncreated voices singing in the void-and I knew where the Rose was -the peculiar crinkling of space on space into dimensions that fold like origami and blossom like strange orchids, and which would mark the last good time before the eventual end of everything and the next Big Bang, which would be, I knew now, nothing of the kind. — Neil Gaiman

Telling a story ain't hard," Lettie had said. "All you need is a beginning, middle, and end."
But that was the problem. I was all middle. I'd always been between the last place and the next. How was I supposed to come up with a story for Sister Redempta or even a "Remember when ... " to reminisce on with somebody else? — Clare Vanderpool

There is a spiritual law of choosing, believing, abiding, and holding steady in our walk with God, which is essential to the working of the Holy Spirit either in our sanctification or healing. — Lettie Cowman

Damn it, Lettie. Marry me. For pity's sake, marry me and put me out of my misery. — Juliet Landon

There is a peace that springs soon after sorrow, Of hope surrendered, not of hope fulfilled; A peace that does not look upon tomorrow, But calmly on the storm that it has stilled. A peace that lives not now in joy's excesses, Nor in the happy life of love secure; But in the unerring strength the heart possesses, Of conflicts won while learning to endure. — Lettie B. Cowman

Beloved, God's promises can never fail to be accomplished, and those who patiently wait can never be disappointed, for a believing faith leads to realization. — Lettie B. Cowman

Lettie Pepeprcorn!' She hissed. 'Stop worrying and do something useful. — Sam Gayton

Faith has nothing to do with circumstances, it deals entirely with the Word of God. — Lettie Cowman

They need and she tries to give it to them. She's doing it to make the world into something she'll be happier in. Somewhere more comfortable for her. Somewhere cleaner. And she doesn't care so much about giving them money, not anymore. Now what she cares about more is people hurting. As we went up the stairs Lettie — Neil Gaiman

Sistrunk looked angrily at Lettie and said, "I'm allowed to be paid for my time and expenses, plus there is the matter of the loans. When can I expect the money?" "In due course," Jake said. "I want it now." "Well, you're not getting it now." "Then I'll sue." "Fine. I'll defend." "And I'll preside," Judge Atlee said. "I'll give you a trial date in about four years. — John Grisham

And every heavy burden you are called upon to lift hides within itself a miraculous secret of strength. — Lettie B. Cowman

I must write now and quickly, before I begin to prefer the perfect version that lives in my head. — Lettie Prell

Oh, monsters are scared," said Lettie. "That's why they're monsters. — Neil Gaiman

Groans that words cannot express" (Rom. 8:26) are often prayers that God cannot refuse. Charles H. Spurgeon — Lettie B. Cowman

I was not scared, though, and I could not have told you why I was not scared. I trusted Lettie, just as I had trusted her when we had gone in search of the flapping thing beneath the orange sky. I believed in her, and that meant I would come to no harm while I was with her. I knew it in a way that I knew that grass was green, the roses had sharp, woody thorns, that breakfast cereal was sweet. — Neil Gaiman

Our character is determined by what we do if every restraint were removed. — Lettie Cowman

I'm a sailor, Lettie, I go where the wind takes me. And it led me to you, didn't it? I was born ten thousand miles away, but the wind brought me to Barter, and now we're friends. We're on this boat for a reason. — Sam Gayton

These springs flow through the low places, the difficult places, the desert places, the lonely places, and even the ordinary places of life. And no matter what our situation may be, these springs can always be found. — Lettie B. Cowman

For I will yet praise him" (Ps. 43:5). More prayer, more exercising of our faith, and more patient waiting leads to blessings - abundant blessings. I have found it to be true many hundreds of times, and therefore I continually say to myself, "Put your hope in God." George Mueller — Lettie B. Cowman

I cannot explain exactly how we are able to receive the power to serve and to endure through communion with God, but I know it is a fact. Are you in danger of being crushed by a heavy and difficult trial? Then seek communion with Christ and you will receive strength and the power to be victorious, for God has promised, "I will strengthen you" (Isa. 41:10). — Lettie B. Cowman

When crew and captain understand each other to the core, It takes a gale and more than a gale to put their ship ashore; For the one will do what the other commands, although they are chilled to the bone; And both together can live through weather that neither could face alone. KIPLING — Lettie B. Cowman

It is the branch that bears the fruit, That feels the knife, To prune it for a larger growth, A fuller life. Though every budding twig be trimmed, And every grace Of swaying tendril, springing leaf, May lose its place. O you whose life of joy seems left, With beauty shorn; Whose aspirations lie in dust, All bruised and torn, Rejoice, though each desire, each dream, Each hope of thine Will fall and fade; it is the hand Of Love Divine That holds the knife, that cuts and breaks With tenderest touch, That you, whose life has borne some fruit, Might now bear much. Annie Johnson Flint — Lettie B. Cowman

What a strange family you are! Is your name Lettie too? — Diana Wynne Jones

I always thought a yard was three feet, then I started mowing the lawn. — Lettie Cowman

We are safer with Him in the dark than without Him in the sunshine. — Lettie B. Cowman

You get on with your own life. Lettie gave it to you. You just have to grow up and try and be worth it. — Neil Gaiman

It is such a comfort to drop the tangles of life into God's hands and leave them there. — Lettie Cowman

P'raps it will be like that and p'raps it won't. And p'raps if it is, it would have been like that anyway. I don't care. I'm still going to wait here for Lettie Hempstock, and she's going to come back to me. And if I die here, then I still die waiting for her, and that's a better way to go than you and all you stupid horrible things tearing me to bits because I've got something inside me that I don't even want. — Neil Gaiman

She's not dead. You didn't kill her, nor did the hunger birds, although they did their best to get to you through her. She's been given her ocean. One day, in its own time, the ocean will give her back.
I thought of corpses and of skeletons with pearls for eyes. I thought of mermaids with tails that flicked when they moved, like my goldfishes' tails had flicked before my goldfish had stopped moving, to lie, belly up, like Lettie, on the top of the water. I said, 'Will she be the same? — Neil Gaiman

See you not, then, that God may take away your comforts and your privileges, to make you the better Christians? Why the Lord always trains His soldiers, not by letting them lie on feather beds, but by turning them out, and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many a long march with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on their backs. This is the way in which He makes them soldiers - not by dressing them up in fine uniforms, to swagger at the barrack gates, and to be fine gentlemen in the eyes of the loungers in the park. — Lettie B. Cowman

Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your souls. Charles H. Spurgeon — Lettie B. Cowman

It's good indeed to give! Yet it is better still - O'er breadth, through length, down depth, up height, To trust HIS will! — Lettie B. Cowman

I should have never left the inn,' she whispered. 'I shouldn't have done it!'
There was something in the ground that Ma had warned in her note. It was real. And Lettie hadn't listened, and now this ... — Sam Gayton

Yes. I was looking for Lettie. They were both very kind to me," Percival said, "Even though they'd never seen me before. And Wizard Howl kept visiting to court Lettie. Lettie didn't want him, and she asked me to bite him to get rid of him, until Howl suddenly began asking her about you and - "
"what?"
he said, " I know someone called sophie who looks a little like you.. And Lettie said, that's my sister,' without thinking," Percival said. " And she got terribly worried then, particularly as Howl went on asking about her sister. — Diana Wynne Jones

He gave Sophie the smile which had no doubt charmed the Witch of the Waste and possibly Lettie too, firing it along the fork, across the cream, straight into Sophie's eyes, dazzlingly. "If you can bully Calcifer, the King should give you no trouble at all."
Sophie stared through the dazzle and said nothing. This, she thought, was where she slithered out. She was leaving. It was too bad about Calcifer's contract. She had had enough of Howl. First green slime, then glaring at her for something Calcifer had done quite freely, and now this! Tomorrow she would slip off to Upper Folding and tell Lettie all about it. — Diana Wynne Jones

Let us never forget that the Husbandman is never so near the land as when he is plowing it, the very time when we are tempted to think He hath forsaken us. His plowing is a proof that He thinks you of value, and worth chastening: for He does not waste His plowing on the barren sand. He will not plow continually, but only for a time, and for a definite purpose. Soon, aye soon, we shall, through these painful processes and by His gentle showers of grace, become His fruitful land. — Lettie B. Cowman

God has not forgotten you. He will as readily order about the forces of the universe on your account as He did on Noah's. His plans for Noah were also plans for the whole world through Noah. So they are for you. He will use you for the good of the whole world if you will let Him. SELECTED We may forget; God does not! God's time is never wrong, Never too fast nor too slow; The planets move to its steady pace As the centuries come and go. Stars rise and set by that time, The punctual comets come back With never a second's variance, From the round of their viewless track. Men space their years by the sun, And reckon their months by the moon, Which never arrive too late And never depart too soon. Let us set our clocks by God's, And order our lives by His ways, And nothing can come and nothing can go Too soon or too late in our day. ANNIE JOHNSON FLINT "There are no dates in His fine leisure. — Lettie B. Cowman

Lettie Hempstock's ocean flowed inside me, and it filled the entire universe, from Egg to Rose. I knew that. I knew what Egg was - where the universe began, to the sound of uncreated voices singing in the void - and I knew where Rose was - the peculiar crinkling of space on space into dimensions that fold like origami and blossom like strange orchids, and which would mark the last good time before the eventual end of everything and the next Big Bang, — Neil Gaiman

How can we have rain without clouds? Our troubles have always brought us blessings, and they always will, for they are the dark chariots of God's bright and glorious grace. Before long the clouds will be emptied, and every tender plant will be happier due to the showers. Our God may drench us with grief, but He will refresh us with His mercy. Our Lord's love letters often come to us in dark envelopes. His wagons may rumble noisily across the sky, but they are loaded with benefits. And His rod blossoms with sweet flowers and nourishing fruits. — Lettie B. Cowman

Sorrow is God's plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen, or were in a glorified state, then the strong torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force to open up all our souls' capacities; but in a fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly. — Lettie Cowman

This is the blessed life - not anxious to see far down the road nor overly concerned about the next step, not eager to choose the path nor weighted down with the heavy responsibilities of the future, but quietly following the Shepherd, one step at a time. — Lettie B. Cowman

The worker is far more important to our Lord than the work. — Lettie Cowman

everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you His unwavering strength that you may bear it. Be at peace, then, and set aside all anxious thoughts and worries. Francis de Sales — Lettie B. Cowman

Life is not salvage to be saved out of the world, but an investment to be used in the world. — Lettie B. Cowman

The cross that my Lord calls me to carry may assume many different shapes. I may have to be content with mundane tasks in a limited area of service, when I may balieve my abilities are suited for much greater work. I may be required to continually cultivate the same field year after year, even though it yields no harvest whatsoever. I may be asked of God to nurture kind and loving thoughts about the very person who has wronged me and to speak gently to him, take his side when others oppose him, and bestow sympathy and comfort to him. I may have to openly testify of my Master before those who do not want to be reminded of Him or His claims. And I may be called to walk through this world with a bright, smiling face while my heart is breaking... "I grow under the load." -Alexander Smellie — Lettie B. Cowman

Lettie sighed - wisdom seems to be highly correlated with sighing. — Laura May

Combat comes before victory. If God has chosen special trials for you to endure, be assured He has kept a very special place in His heart just for you. A badly bruised soul is one who is chosen. — Lettie B. Cowman

The heart that serves, and loves, and clings, Hears everywhere the rush of angel wings. — Lettie B. Cowman

Never yield to gloomy anticipation. Place your hope and confidence in God. He has no record of failure — Lettie Cowman

Then there you are, then. The day Howl forgets to do that will be the day I believe he's really in love, and not before.
Michael to Sophie about wether or not Howl is really in love with Lettie. pg, 170 — Diana Wynne Jones

You were lucky,' said Lettie. 'Fifteen feet further back, and the field belongs to Colin Anders.'
'You would have come anyway,' I told her. 'You would have saved me. — Neil Gaiman

Not until each loom is silent, And the shuttles cease to fly, Will God unroll the pattern And explain the reason why The dark threads are as needful In the Weaver's skillful hand, As the threads of gold and silver For the pattern which He planned. — Lettie B. Cowman

God has so ordered, that in pressing on in duty we shall find the truest, richest comfort for ourselves. Sitting down to brood over our sorrows, the darkness deepens about us and creeps into our heart, and our strength changes to weakness. But, if we turn away from the gloom, and take up the tasks and duties to which God calls us, the light will come again, and we shall grow stronger. — Lettie Cowman

but God is the God of the unsuccessful - the God of those who have failed. Heaven is being filled with earth's broken lives, and there is no "bruised reed" (Isa. 42:3) that Christ cannot take and restore to a glorious place of blessing and beauty. He can take a life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it a harp whose music will be total praise. He can lift earth's saddest failure up to heaven's glory. J. R. Miller — Lettie B. Cowman

The beauties of nature come after the storm. The rugged beauty of the mountain is born in a storm, and the heroes of life are the storm-swept and battle-scarred. — Lettie B. Cowman

Christians with the most spiritual depth are generally those who have been taken through the most intense and deeply anguishing fires of the soul. If you have been praying to know more of Christ, do not be surprised if He leads you through the desert or through a furnace of pain. — Lettie B. Cowman

Every difficult task that comes across your path - every one that you would rather not do, that will take the most effort, cause the most pain, and be the greatest struggle - brings a blessing with it. — Lettie B. Cowman

Lettie, as the second daughter, was never likely to come to much, — Diana Wynne Jones

Dear Christian, do not be afraid, for Jesus is with you. Through all your fiery trials, His presence is both your comfort and safety. He will never forsake those He has chosen for His own. "Do not be afraid, for I am with you" (Gen. 26:24) is His unfailing word of promise to His chosen ones who are experiencing "the furnace of affliction." Charles H. Spurgeon — Lettie B. Cowman

We have so much patience with ourselves, why not borrow some of that and use it on others. — Lettie Cowman

When I cannot feel the faith of assurance, I live by the fact of God's faithfulness. Matthew Henry — Lettie B. Cowman

The trials of life are sent to make us, not to break us. — Lettie B. Cowman

Do not limit the limitless God! With Him, face the future unafraid because you are never alone. — Lettie Cowman

As a child of God, how much more do we need times of complete solitude - times to deal with the spiritual realities of life and to be alone with God the Father. If there was ever anyone who could dispense with special times of solitude and fellowship, it was our Lord. Yet even He could not maintain His full strength and power for His work and His fellowship with the Father without His quiet time. God desires that every servant of His would understand and perform this blessed practice, that His church would know how to train its children to recognize this high and holy privilege, and that every believer would realize the importance of making time for God alone. — Lettie B. Cowman

The man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simply formed the habit of failure. — Lettie Cowman