State Of Wonder Quotes

• Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.

  Ann Patchett

  Sight, Goal, Focus

  Ann Patchett (2011). “State of Wonder”, p.246, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.

  Glenn Gould

  Art, Serenity, Purpose

  88 Copy quote

• To be always in a state of wonder is a kind of sensitivity that can sometimes be an extraordinary blessing and sometimes a real pain.

  Holly Near

  Pain, Real, Blessing

  12 Copy quote

• The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder.

  Glenn Gould

  Art, Purpose, Wonder

  Commencement address at York University, Toronto, Canada, 6 Nov. 1982

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• Hope is a horrible thing, you know. I don't know who decided to package hope as a virtue because it's not. It's a plague. Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it.

  Ann Patchett

  Mouths, Virtue, Horrible

  Ann Patchett (2011). “State of Wonder”, p.43, A&C Black

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• Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Patience, Wisdom

  1902 The Story of My Life.

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• There was no one clear point of loss. It happened over and over again in a thousand small ways and the only truth there was to learn was that there was no getting used to it.

  Ann Patchett

  Loss, Way, Used

  Ann Patchett (2011). “State of Wonder”, p.269, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Great innovations, powerful interactions and real art are often produced by someone in a state of wonder. Looking around with stars in your eyes and amazement at the tools that are available to you can inspire generosity and creativity and connection

  Seth Godin

  Art, Stars, Powerful

  8 Copy quote

• If the average person realized the power he wields over his life and destiny, he would live in a perpetual state of wonder and thanksgiving.

  Earl Nightingale

  Thank You, Destiny, Average

  20 Copy quote

• And a lot of poetry is putting yourself back into the state of wonder that you have before things when you're a child. It's not only a joyous wonder, it's sometimes a grief stricken wonder.

  Edward Hirsch

  Children, Grief, Sometimes

  "A Poet Is Born". Big Think interview, bigthink.com.

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• The classicist, and the naturalist who has much in common with him, refuse to see in the highest works of art anything but the exercise of judgement, sensibility, and skill. The romanticist cannot be satisfied with such a normal standard; for him art is essentially irrational - an experience beyond normality, sometimes destructive of normality, and at the very least evocative of that state of wonder which is the state of mind induced by the immediately inexplicable.

  Herbert Read

  Art, Exercise, Skills

  7 Copy quote

• If one steps out on a starry night and observes one's inner state, one asks if one could hate or be overwhelmed by envy or resentment. ... Is it not true that no man or woman has ever committed a crime while in a state of wonder?

  Jacob Needleman

  Hate, Night, Men

  20 Copy quote