Flannery O'Connor Quotes

41 quotes

American writer (1925–1964)

“Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”

"Our spiritual character is formed as much by what we endure and what is taken from us as it is by our achievements and our conscious choices."

on Faith

"The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.”(August 9, 1955)"

on Faith

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."

on Truth

"To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness."

on Life

"When something is finished, it cannot be possessed. Nothing can be possessed but the struggle."

on Philosophy

"She would've been a good woman," said The Misfit, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."

on Life

"Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days."

on Childhood

"Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better."

on Philosophy

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."

on Truth

"The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode."

on Art

"Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not."

on Faith

"There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."

on Writing

"To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks."

on Self Awareness

"The basic experience of everyone is the experience of human limitation."

on Philosophy

"In yourself right now is all the place you've got."

on Self Awareness

"It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes."

on Failure

"Children know by instinct that hell is an absence of love, and they can pick out theirs without missing."

on Love

"People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them."

on Writing

"Everywhere I go, I am asked if I think university stifles writers. My opinion is that it doesn't stifle enough of them."

on Writing

"No one can be an atheist who does not know all things. Only God is an atheist."

on Faith