Madeleine L'Engle Quotes

Science has explained nothing; the more we know the more fantastic the world becomes and the profounder the surrounding darkness.

There are some things that defy explanation- kind of like. . . you know, you.

When something exceeds your ability to understand how it works, it sort of becomes magical.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

Our ignorance will always remain greater than our knowledge.

Whoever believes he knows why everything is as it is has hold of nothing.

Some things are beyond human understanding.

Unexplained, obscure matters are regarded as more important than explained, clear ones.

The more mysterious, the more imperfect; as darkness is, in comparison with light--so is mystery, in comparison with knowledge.

Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing.

Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.

A mystery is not a puzzle waiting to be solved, but rather something for which there is no human solution. Mystery's offspring is not frustration but awe, and that sense of awe grows in tandem with knowledge.

It's as simple as something that nobody knows.

If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.

What is divine? It is simply that which man has not been able to understand. Once you do, it loses its divinity.

Everything is a mystery, ourselves, and all things both simple and humble.

Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you, life where things aren't.

There are many things that I don't understand.

One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand.

It is unwise to wish everything explained.

Vulgarized knowledge characteristically gives birth to a feeling that everything is understandable and explained. It is like a system of bridges built over chasms. One can travel boldly ahead over these bridges, ignoring the chasms. It is forbidden to look down into them; but that, alas, does not alter the fact that they exist.

What is imponderable in the world is greater than what we can handle.

I don't feel it incumbent on me to make sense of everything.

Well isn’t that one thing you’re all the more wise for? Age has taught you something. It seems to me that you know the big secret. That nobody knows what’s going on

For only when I err do I get away from what I know and what I understand. If "truth" were what I can understand, it would end up being but a small truth, my-sized. Truth must reside precisely in what I shall never understand.