Jan Karon > Quotes

“As long as you have any floor space at all, you have room for books! Just make two stacks of books the same height, place them three or four feet apart, lay a board across them, and repeat. Voila! Bookshelves!”
― Jan Karon

“Lord, make me a blessing to someone today.”
― Jan Karon, At Home in Mitford

“I'd like you to know that I've forgiven him. Again and again. Once done, of course, back comes the Enemy to persecute and prosecute, and I must ante up to God and forgive yet again.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“One of the things that makes a dead leaf fall to the ground is the bud of the new leaf that pushes it off the limb.”
― Jan Karon

“The firefly only shines when on the wing, So it is with us--when we stop, we darken.”
― Jan Karon, At Home in Mitford

“Well, I'm going to church. But i've got to tell you that it's full of hypocrites.

My friend, if you keep your eyes on Christians, you will be disappointed every day of your life. Your hope is to keep your eyes on Christ.”
― Jan Karon, At Home in Mitford

“Easter is never deserved.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“Are you reading your Bible?"
Ah, well...I was."
And then you quit."
You got it."
Then, you can expect to be weak on one of your flanks, and that's precisely where the Enemy will come after you with a vengeance.”
― Jan Karon, At Home in Mitford

“Phillipians 4:13 for Pete's sake!”
― Jan Karon, A New Song

“I believe that's when God first started speaking to my heart--the very day I started speaking to His!”
― Jan Karon, A Light in the Window

“Sorrow and joy, he thought, so inextricably entwined that he could scarcely tell where one left off and the other began.”
― Jan Karon, At Home in Mitford

“There may be circumstances in this life that God uses to keep bringing us back to Him, looking for His grace.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“In Ireland there’s no such thing as bad weather ~~~ only the wrong clothes.”
― Jan Karon , In the Company of Others

“When the trees and the power lines crashed around you, when the very roof gave way above you, when the light turned to darkness and water turned to dust, did you call on Him?

When you called on Him, was He somewhere up there, or was He as near as your very breath?”
― Jan Karon, A New Song

“I've got a lot to download on your mercy and grace. I've always rushed up to You and dumped whatever it was and hurried away, fascinated by my own busyness. I want to turn all this over to You slowly, carefully, examining every fragment as I pass it off, so there'll never be any question about it again. Every time I've dumped and run, I've nearly always run back and snatched it out of Your hands. Help me in this.......Right now, I'm certain of only one thing - that You love us, and that's where we all have to begin.”
― Jan Karon

“In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After 'Nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“Loving can be hard. Sometimes we don't feel loving, but it isn't all about feeling. Very often it is about will. Practice that if you can.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“Give me faith, Lord, to know Your Presence as surely as I know the beating of my own heart. I've felt so far from You....”
― Jan Karon, In This Mountain

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness.”
― Jan Karon, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good

“I have just four words to leave with you. Four words that have spoken volumes of truth into my life.'

He wanted the words to stay in the room, to remain long after he had gone. Though no one wished to hear Paul's radical injunction, it had to be told.

'In everything, give thanks.'

This was the lifeboat in any crisis. Over and over again, he had learned this, and over and over again, he had to be reminded.”
― Jan Karon

“...weary of k knowing too much and understanding too little.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“Alis volat propiss. (She flies with her own wings.)”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“I can't say I have any confidence in confidence. I have confidence that God is with us in all things, both tender and tough.”
― Jan Karon, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good

“When we turn from our sin, and have the blessed forgiveness of the Almighty, then we can ask Him to run things, and let Him be in charge.”
― Jan Karon, These High, Green Hills

“Listening is among the most generous ways to give. When a loved one talks to us— whether their words appear to be deep or shallow— listen. For in some way, they are baring their souls.”
― Jan Karon

“Sometimes you have to gag on fancy before you can appreciate plain, th' way I see it. For too many years, I ate fancy, I dressed fancy, I talked fancy. A while back, I decided to start talkin' th' way I was raised t' talk, and for th' first time in forty years, I can understand what I'm sayin'.”
― Jan Karon

“I worried too much about what others thought—I can tell you it’s a tragic waste of time and energy and pokes God in the eye.”
― Jan Karon, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good

“Love is an actual need, an urgent requirement of the heart," he read aloud from an old essay on marriage that he found in his files.

"Every properly constituted human being who entertains an appreciation of loneliness...and looks forward to happiness and content feels the necessity of loving. Without it, life is unfinished...”
― Jan Karon, A Light in the Window

“But “common sense is not faith,” Oswald Chambers had written, “and faith is not common sense.”
― Jan Karon, At Home in Mitford

“Rejoice! Know that I am with you and for you and will never leave you; take courage that I will fight for you and be your shield and buckler and provide for you when you are old; I will supply your every need, I will give you victory over death, I have prepared a place for you in heaven”
― Jan Karon, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good