Wisdom Quote by Flannery O'Connor — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

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

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally. A higher paradox confounds the emotion as well as reason and there are long periods in the lives of all of us, when the truth as revealed by faith is hideous, emotionally disturbing, downright repulsive. Witness the dark night of the soul in individual saints . . .”

“The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.”

“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”

“It does not take much to make us realize what fools we are, but the little it takes is long in coming.”

“Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look.”

“We, human beings , are strong because we are capable of change .”

“You don't always need to know your destination when you set out on a journey.”

“Success begins with thousands of questions.”

“Love is wise,”

“Never for a moment try to help yourself out of a difficulty by a lie or by a questionable act. Instead, keep in the middle of the high road of truth and integrity, and you will be following the best possible course. In our lives we must never practice deceit or duplicity. Be just and do not fear.”

“Advice," Doña Vorchenza chuckled. "Advice. The years play a sort of alchemical trick, transmuting one's mutterings to a state of respectability. Give advice at forty and you're a nag. Give it at seventy and you're a sage.”