Wolterstorff Nicholas Quotes & Sayings

Why are you crying?"
"Because," she whispered, her voice shaking, "you remind me of what the world ought to be. What the world can be. — Sarah J. Maas

The very freedom and expressiveness we find missing in life we find present in art. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

God is not only the God of the sufferers but the God who suffers ... It is said of God that no one can behold his face and live. I always thought this meant that no one could see his splendor and live. A friend said perhaps it meant that no one could see his sorrow and live. Or perhaps his sorrow is splendor ... Instead of explaining our suffering God shares it. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

Choice is always performed against a background of habit. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

How is faith to endure, O God, when you allow all this scraping and tearing on us? You have allowed rivers of blood to flow, mountains of suffering to pile up, sobs to become humanity's song
all without lifting a finger that we could see. You have allowed bonds of love beyond number to be painfully snapped. If you have not abandoned us, explain yourself.
We strain to hear. But instead of hearing an answer we catch sight of God himself scraped and torn. Through our tears we see the tears of God. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

Peter was the only one who walked on water besides Jesus, but he was also the only one who got out of the boat. Until you make a decision to believe, and then act on it, nothing will happen. — Joyce Meyer

And what of regrets? I shall live with them. I shall accept my regrets as part of my life, to be numbered among my self-inflicted wounds. But I will not endlessly gaze at them. I shall allow the memories to prod me into doing better with those still living. And I shall allow them to sharpen the vision and intensify the hope for that Great Day coming when we can all throw ourselves into each other's arms and say, I'm sorry. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

The Mississippi River carries the mud of thirty states and two provinces 2,000 miles south to the delta and deposits 500 million tons of it there every year. The business of the Mississippi, which it will accomplish in time, is methodically to transport all of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. — Charles Kuralt

the United States has managed its cultural diversity through a collective determination among its people to be at once pluralistic and civil. As difficult as pluralism and civility are for both red and blue today, that is the way for America to be truest to itself. If secular and religious Americans can respect one another, avoid believing each other to be dangerous, and avoid being dangerous to each other - engage in what philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff calls dialogical pluralism - America also can set an example that is germane to the Middle East's ongoing struggle. — John M. Owen IV

All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move. — Alfred Lord Tennyson

The tears of God are the meaning of history. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

His gaze travelled down me, then zipped back to my face. "Sorry."
"Focus, Rafe."
"I am. Just on the wrong thing. — Kelley Armstrong

Intemperance is the only vulgarity. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many are the scholars who make it their professional occupation to occupy themselves in this towering edifice of culture, exploring its nook and crannies, developing their responses, making their contributions here and there, and helping to hand it on to succeeding generations. For some the temptation proves irresistible to go yet farther and make this the concern of their lives, letting society go its own sorry way while they lock themselves away in this abiding, socially transcendent cultural stronghold, acquiescing in society while pursuing Bildung. As Rotterdam burns, they study Sanskrit verb forms. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

Real question is not who was this man (Jesus), but who is this man? — John Ortberg

Why are the photographs of him as a little boy so incredibly hard to look at? Something is over. Now instead of those shiny moments being things we can share together in delighted memories, I, the survivor, have to bear them alone. So it is with all the memories of him. They all lead into blackness. All I can do is remember him, I cannot experience him. Nothing new can happen between us. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

You need a really solid foundation of friends and family to keep you where you need to be. — Lilly Singh

Any power, of course, depends upon the values of the person exercising the power. — Mark Pellegrino

I Shall Look At The World Through Tears. Perhaps I Shall See Things That, Dry-Eyed, I Could Not See — Nicholas Wolterstorff

Self-appearing subjects and objects are the power of the baseless ultimate truth. — Longchenpa

He got right down in the dark between heartbeats, and rested there. And then he saw that another one wasn't going to come. That's it. That's the last. He looked at the dark. I would like to take this opportunity, he said, to pray for another human being. — Denis Johnson

Sometimes the reason offered for seeking aesthetic excellence in the music of the church is that thereby one pleases God. I think that is true. But not because we know what music God enjoys
though I suspect it must be music which is unified, rich, and intense! Rather, because it is in the joy of his people that God finds delight. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

One of many challenges is of course to create a legal basis for copyright issues that's up to date with both modern distribution, consumer behavior and the rights and needs of creators and copyright holders. — Lisa Langseth

In the valley of suffering, despair and bitterness are brewed. But there also character is made. The valley of suffering is the vale of soul-making. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

Faith is a footbridge that you don't know will hold you up over the chasm until you're forced to walk out onto it. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

But we all suffer. For we all prize and love; and in this present existence of ours, prizing and loving yield suffering. Love in our world is suffering love. Some do not suffer much, though, for they do not love much. Suffering is for the loving. This, said Jesus, is the command of the Holy One: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." In commanding us to love, God invites us to suffer. — Nicholas Wolterstorff

But what now? What am I supposed to do with all these feelings? — Jenny Han

Technology does make possible advance toward shalom; progress in mastery of the world can bring shalom nearer. But the limits of technology must also be acknowledged; technology is entirely incapable of bringing about shalom between ourselves and God, and it is only scarcely capable of bringing about the love of self and neighbour. — Nicholas Wolterstorff