The Beating of His Wings Quotes

“People treat the present moment as if it is just a stopping point on the way to some great goal that will happen in the future, and then they are surprised that the long day closes; they look back on their life and see that the things they let go by so unregarded, the small pleasures they dismissed so easily were in fact the true significance of their lives- all the time these things were the great and wonderful successes and purpose of their existence.”
― Paul Hoffman, The Beating of His Wings

“It's one of the greatest mistakes of cultivated people to take it as given that because they have sophisticated minds they also have sophisticated emotions. But what kind of soul feels sophisticated hatred or sophisticated grief, for, say, a murdered child? Is the broken heart of the educated and refined person different from that of the savage? Why not say that the enlightened and knowledgeable feel the pain of childbirth, or the kidney stone, in a different way to unpolished commoner or chav? Intelligence has many shades, but rage is the same color everywhere. Humiliation tastes the same to everyone.”
― Paul Hoffman, The Beating of His Wings

“Just as the purpose of the liver is to act as a sump for the poisons of the body, the soul has its organs for containing and isolating the toxic discharge of human suffering.”
― Paul Hoffman, The Beating of His Wings

“Treat others as you would expect to be treated by them,”
― Paul Hoffman, The Beating of His Wings

“If you fight cruelty with kindness, it's the kindness that goes away, not the cruelty.”
― Paul Hoffman, The Beating of His Wings