I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be.. This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages..the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide.. Far too many people misunderstand what *putting away childish things* means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I'm with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grown-up, then I don't ever want to be one. Instead of which, if I can retain a child's awareness and joy, and *be* fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup. . Madeleine LEngle
Some Similar Quotes
  1. And when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful. - Ruskin Bond

  2. That was when it was all made painfully clear to me. When you are a child, there is joy. There is laughter. And most of all, there is trust. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>Trust in your fellows. When you are an adult..then comes suspicion, hatred, and fear.... - Peter David

  3. Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. - Flannery OConnor

  4. Be sure to lie to your kids about the benevolent, all-seeing Santa Claus. It will prepare them for an adulthood of believing in God. - Scott Dikkers

  5. Whatever I learned, Whatever I knew, Seems like those faded years of childhood that flew, Away in some dilemma, Always in some confusion, The purpose of this life, Seems like an illusion! - Mehek Bassi

More Quotes By Madeleine LEngle
  1. Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.

  2. Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. - Mrs. Whatsit

  3. It takes too much energy to be against something unless it's really important.

  4. Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand....

  5. But my memories are like a fire in winter–whenever I'm cold I can warm my hands at them.– Ditta

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