Octavia E. Butler Quotes

There is no truth without responsibility following in its wake.

Only when the voice of duty is silent, or when it has already spoken, may we allowably think of the consequences of a particular action.

Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before—consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves. And it is best to fix our minds on that certainty, instead of considering what may be the elements of excuse for us.

Really to sin you have to be serious about it.

The Epistle is a correction of profession without life, and most valuable in this respect.

If you had special powers, it wouldn't be all fun and games. There would be regrets for things you've done.

The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

What a man knows hardly matters. It is what he does.

There's a scripture in the Book of James which says, 'Become a doer of the word and not a hearer only.' A hearer is someone who looks into a mirror, walks away, and quickly forgets what sort of person he is.

I make mistakes every day. I'm not perfect in my behavior, but I want to be and that's what God is after, a heart that wants to be.

Truth is given, not to be contemplated, but to be done. Life is an action, not a thought.

Humankind's ladder to God is a ladder of deeds.

The consequences of every act are included in the act itself.

You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act.

It is interesting to see how humans would act if they knew there were never any consequences for their actions because the next day they could wake up and just redo it.

Belief means nothing without actions

Fools measure actions, after they are done, by the event; wise men beforehand, by the rules of reason and right. The former look to the end, to judge of the act. Let me look to the act, and leave the end with God.

I still have a spiritual base and a spiritual foundation. And my conversation with God is very open-ended. I pray for humility, honestly, because it's very easy to be caught up in this world.

The man who would truly know God must give time to Him.

I don't go to church so much, but I do believe in God and I understand the consequences of faith.

If you want to be holy then you must give time to God and not just intend to.

God has not bowed to our nervous haste nor embraced the methods of our machine age. The man who would know God must give time to Him.

Lies are a tremendous karmic setback. Keep it up and you'll come back in the next life as something without a spine. You're not fine. And you don't have to be fine.

We can learn more in an hour praying, when praying indeed, than from many hours of rigorous study.

You have to recognise your responsibility to your community for your actions. Liberty doesn't mean that you are not held accountable. Without accountability, there can be no freedom. I know it seems like a paradox.