A Big Little Life: A Memoir Of A Joyful Dog Quotes
"Already and unexpectedly, she has changed me as a person and as a writer."
"In each little life, we can see great truth and beauty."
"A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke."
"We arrive at the paleness to avoid consideration of the daunting truth in all its fierce color and infinite detail."
"A dog can be a living work of art, a constant reminder of the exquisite design and breathtaking detail of nature, beauty on four paws."
"Our faith tells us that when the last hour comes, the best places to be taken are while in prayer or while engaged in work to which we committed ourselves in cheerful acceptance of the truth that work is the lot of humanity, post Eden."
"If we allow ourselves to be enchanted by the beauty of the ordinary, we begin to see that all things are extraordinary."
"As any man or woman is not only a man or a woman but is also a spirit corrupted in minor or major ways, so this dog was not only a dog, but also a spirit uncorrupted as no human spirit can be."
"If we allow ourselves to recognize the mystery and the wonder of existence, our fogged minds clear."
"This may be the primary purpose of dogs: to restore our sense of wonder and to help us maintain it."
"No dog was ever more people-oriented than Trixie."
"Dogs might love a place, as people do, but the only place they love beyond all others is the place where you are."
"As anyone who has ever opened his heart and mind to a dog knows, these creatures have emotions very like our own."
"That night, on our return to the house on the hill, Trixie was declaring, ‘This is where I belong,’ and was expressing her joy that at last she had a place in the world from which she would not be taken."
"I believe the ER doctor filed the report with animal control, as required, but I suspect he might have added some exculpatory comments."
"Trixie inspired me to look at things from a new perspective, made the familiar fresh again."
"Wonder inspires curiosity, and curiosity keeps the mind from becoming sick with irrational ideologies and stultified with dogma."
"No, a plate of nachos is not the meaning of life. But finding joy in things as humble as a plate of nachos is an important step toward the discovery of meaning."
"The greater challenge of these new books brought me enormous pleasure that at times approached a sustained rapture."
"The fact that the universe exists is the most astonishing thing of all, but the second greatest astonishment is the existence of creatures... that can reason and learn, that are not driven solely by instinct."
"By Trixie’s intelligence, by her sense of wonder, she revealed a seeking soul—and led me to a reconsideration not only of the mystery of life but of the mystery of my own soul and destiny."
"My second revelation was the recognition of the unblemished innocence of her soul compared to mine or to that of any human being."
"I came to realize that the flight from innocence so characteristic of our time is a leap into absurdity and insanity."
"Considering the potentially momentous nature of even the smallest decisions we make, we ought to be terrified and humbled, we ought to be filled with gratitude for every grace we receive."
"Dogs’ joy is directly related to the fact that they do not deceive, do not betray, and do not covet."
"A life-altering lesson can be learned by considering what dogs know about mortality and how they know it."
"We live in death, which is all around us, and waiting in us."
"If our dogs have a tao, we must have one, too, because dogs would not love us so much if we were nothing but meat machines without principles or purpose."
"The only wisdom we can hope to acquire / Is the wisdom of humility."
"Odd Thomas is a novel about perseverance in the face of terrible loss, about holding fast to rational hope in a world of pain, about finding peace—not bitterness—in the memory of love taken by untimely death."
"The only wisdom is humility, which engenders gratitude, and humility is the condition of the heart essential for us to know peace."
"She was not an assistance dog anymore, but a princess, and she wished to be treated as one."
"Love and sausage are alike. Can never have enough of either."
"We must know the pain of loss because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest."
"The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one."
"Every smallest act of kindness—even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, the compliment that engenders a smile—has the potential to change the recipient’s life."
"Maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and for the mistakes we make because of those illusions."