Quotes by Will Schwalbe

One of Moms 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?

Thats one of the amazing things great books like this do - they dont just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.

Good books often answer questions you didnt even know you wanted to ask

Reading and naps, two of lifes greatest pleasures, go especially well together.

It was the women of afghanistan,my mother believed,who-once they’d been granted access to books and education- would be the salvation of the country

I think its because it shows that people--or hobbits, as the case may be--can find strength they didnt know they had.

Trust is all about instinct. If you had all the facts, you wouldnt need trust. Trust is what is required in the absence of proof. But I believe you can strengthen your instincts by testing them; every time you prove yourself right or wrong, they grow stronger.

The idea is that if you practice the Naikan part of Constructive Living, life becomes a series of small miracles, and you may start to notice everything that goes right in a typical life and not the few things that go wrong.

I was learning that when youre with someone who is dying, you may need to celebrate the past, live the present, and mourn the future all at the same time.

It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are, and where we are is Gods providential arrangement - Gods doing, though it may be mans misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made our of them.

...two different kinds of Japanese psychotherapies, one based on getting people to stop using feelings as an excuse for their actions and the other based on getting people to practice gratitude.

She felt whatever emotions she felt, but feeling was never a useful substitute for doing, and she never let the former get in the way of the latter. If anything, she used her emotions to motivate her and help her concentrate. The emphasis for her was always on doing what needed to be done.

In Gilead, the narrators friends son describes himself not as an atheist but in state of categorical unbelief. He says, I dont even believe God doesnt exist, if you see what I mean. I pointed this passage out to Mom and said it closely matched my own views--I just didnt think about religion.

...mindfulness - it isnt a trick or a gimmick. Its being present in the moment. When Im with you, Im with you. Right now. Thats all. No more and no less.

Of course you could do more - you can always do more, and you should do more - but still, the important things is to do what you can, whenever you can. You just do your best, and thats all you can do. Too many people use the excuse that they dont think they can do enough, so they decide they dont have to to do anything. Theres never a good excuse for not doing anything - even if its just to sign something, or send a small contribution, or invite a newly settled refugee family over for Thanksgiving.

You can only do what you can, and what doesnt get done, just doesnt get done.

I think women should have choices and should be able to do what they like, and I think its a great choice to stay at home and raise kids, just as its a great choice to have a career. But I dont entirely approve of people who get advanced degrees and then decide to stay at home. I think if society gives you the gift of one of those educations and you take a spot in a very competitive institution, then you should do something with that education to help others... But I also dont approve of working parents who look down on stay-at-home mothers and think they smother their children. Working parents are every bit as capable of spoiling children as ones who dont work - maybe even more so when they indulge their kids out of guilt. The best think anyone can teach their children is the obligation we all have toward each other - and no one has a monopoly on teaching that.

books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose - electronic (even though that wasnt for her) or printed, or audio - is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in human conversation.

Oh, dear--did I forget to mention that you can, indeed, have it all, but you need a lot of help!

If Id waited until I was well rested to read, I never would have read anything.