David Paul Kirkpatrick > Quotes

“For the life of us all—whether we be star or starfish—is made of four ingredients, ingredients that can be found in the recipe to Alice’s hot-milk cake.

Those ingredients are earth, fire, air, and water. But as Theo walked down the snowy vein of Cockle Cove Road and into the arctic air that surrounded the sea, he sensed that fifth element, which poets and religions and pregnant women and jazz musicians point to—that fifth element of spirit.

He sensed that fifth ingredient with the cat. Surely, she is knowing. Surely, she has a soul. As the snowflakes dropped onto his pea coat, Theo thought that this was not only the snow descending upon the mantel of his coat, but the sacred ephemerals that he, like Ahanu and Reverend Cummings, believed ran through all living things. It was the fifth element of which the great masters—Moses, Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, and Big Thunder—spoke. The Sacral Spirit. We were put on this magical planet, not to dominate and consume her, but to care for her and love her. To harrow gently. To harvest gratefully. To build reasonably.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“I am all for science, but science can never tell us why we find the stars so beautiful.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“I am a follower of Jesus and a student of the Buddha. Why is that so hard for my fellow Christians to grasp?”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“That's the funny thing about the dark—eventually, there'll be stars.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Theo watched as the cat vanished over the tie, following the walking ghost of his dog into the vast pouring-out of the teeming, bone-white, snow-white immensities.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“It would have been easy for Theo to grow ironic. He could walk through life with a paradoxical chip on his shoulder, with skin like armor. But Alice did not want to raise a boy who looked at life askew. Alice wanted her son to greet the day with elation. She wanted to raise her boy into a wholesome man.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“I am a follower of Jesus and a student of the Buddha.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“The earth is my altar, the moon my candle.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“She brought a chicken from the coop to the chopping block. She kissed the hen’s beak in gratitude, knowing the hen would nourish many youngsters through her sacrifice.

After the blessing, Oota Dabun took an ax to the hen’s neck. The death was instant. Painless. Such is the mercy that comes from the slayer who knows one day he or she shall also be slain.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“I have lived a big life. For that I am grateful.

But as one disengages from it and grows more reflective and less involved in the day-to-day grind, I think it’s possible to discover wisdom, born of experience and thankfulness. You must “ swallow the shadow” i.e. the fear of death. You must let go of the image of the fit-body and the triumph of your ego-place in the overculture.

I think, if you can do that, this “good age” as I like to call it, can be full of radiant inspiration and tender memory. For in all it’s contradiction, somewhere, in the puzzle of life, is incredible beauty. And who does not want to know beauty through their remembering?”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Beware of the dark arts, lad. Don’t think those priests are holy. It’s not by accident this world has taken the most intimate act, fucking, and turned it into an obscenity.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Take heart. Love has overcome the wild world. Dogs were once wolves.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“I love you, Shadow. I want you to go now,” Theo said quiet-ly. “You can go, Shadow. Walk with me. C’mon, I’m just ahead of you. Come on, climb away from that old body of yours. Walk with me. Do you see me? I’m just ahead of you on the beach. See? You can now run fast ‘cause you have all your legs, again. Can you feel them, boy?”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“When we look at a dog, we see the best in ourselves.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Light swallows darkness. Compassion eats fear. And life is romance as well as science.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“The storm arrived without warning.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“This darkness will not last forever. You'll see. Eventually, there will be stars.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Why must we continue to believe peace requires war?”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“In this world, war shall always be, for here be dragons. Yet, in the end, we do not hold dear the bright blade, nor the hammer. In the end, we love only what we must shield.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Why, Daddy?" she asked. She still had that strange look on her face. "Why do dogs die so young? Shadow was only seventeen. He was not even as old as my babysitter."
"To teach us," he said.
"Teach us what, Daddy?"
"Compassion," he replied.
"But why, Daddy?" she asked.
"So that we might be kinder. So we might make the world kinder. They leave, but they leave us with their lesson. All great teachers do that.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Everything before our eyes was first someone's idea.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“We can't see much in this world, unless we see with our hearts.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Trouble follows beauty.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Use your pen to make light.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“I work at night for that's where magic hides.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“Are all things fixed?" Merlin asked the maighstir. "Some are. Most aren't," replied his teacher. "Your fate is what you are born into, but your destiny is what you chose to make of it. The stars control your fate. But your mind, body, and spirit control your destiny.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“My dear, dear pollywog, you do not need to look far for the Tree of Life. You ARE the Tree of Life. Your feet, its roots. Your arms , its limbs. Your mind, its flower. It is why we were able to overcome the giants and the brutes. For we do not have mere brains. We have MINDS that can imagine fancy and we have the strong bodies to make those fancies real. We are what the ancient magi speak of— ‘for so below, so above. So within, so without.’ Your flower and roots are bound in the royal river of majesty. Do you not yet understand, Lad, that everything you need is within you? Nay, you do not need to look far for the Tree of Life, you need to look into the mirrored glass—there you will find the flower and if you study with your heart , the flower shall fall and her fruit shall shine golden.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“You'll find me with the Tuberose. We bloom at night.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“God made the wolf but Man made the dog.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick

“The best traveling never requires a road.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick