Benediction Quotes

“And so we know the satisfaction of hate. We know the sweet joy of revenge. How it feels good to get even. Oh, that was a nice idea Jesus had. That was a pretty notion, but you can't love people who do evil. It's neither sensible or practical. It's not wise to the world to love people who do such terrible wrong. There is no way on earth we can love our enemies. They'll only do wickedness and hatefulness again. And worse, they'll think they can get away with this wickedness and evil, because they'll think we're weak and afraid. What would the world come to?

But I want to say to you here on this hot July morning in Holt, what if Jesus wasn't kidding? What if he wasn't talking about some never-never land? What if he really did mean what he said two thousand years ago? What if he was thoroughly wise to the world and knew firsthand cruelty and wickedness and evil and hate? Knew it all so well from personal firsthand experience? And what if in spite of all that he knew, he still said love your enemies? Turn your cheek. Pray for those who misuse you. What if he meant every word of what he said? What then would the world come to?

And what if we tried it? What if we said to our enemies: We are the most powerful nation on earth. We can destroy you. We can kill your children. We can make ruins of your cities and villages and when we're finished you won't even know how to look for the places where they used to be. We have the power to take away your water and to scorch your earth, to rob you of the very fundamentals of life. We can change the actual day into actual night. We can do these things to you. And more.

But what if we say, Listen: Instead of any of these, we are going to give willingly and generously to you. We are going to spend the great American national treasure and the will and the human lives that we would have spent on destruction, and instead we are going to turn them all toward creation. We'll mend your roads and highways, expand your schools, modernize your wells and water supplies, save your ancient artifacts and art and culture, preserve your temples and mosques. In fact, we are going to love you. And again we say, no matter what has gone before, no matter what you've done: We are going to love you. We have set our hearts to it. We will treat you like brothers and sisters. We are going to turn our collective national cheek and present it to be stricken a second time, if need be, and offer it to you. Listen, we--

But then he was abruptly halted.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“That was on a night in August. Dad Lewis died early that morning and the young girl Alice from next door got lost in the evening and then found her way home in the dark by the streetlights of town and so returned to the people who loved her. And in the fall the days turned cold and the leaves dropped off the trees and in the winter the wind blew from the mountains and out on the high plains of Holt County there were overnight storms and three-day blizzards.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“You're going to mess this up, do you know that? You don't even see what's in front of you. You're like everybody else.
No, I'm not.
You're dreaming backward.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Love is the most important part of life isn't it. If you have love, you can live in this world in a true way and if you love each other you can see past everything and accept what you don't understand and forgive what you don't now or don't like. Love is all. Love is patient and boundless and right-hearted and long-suffering.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“They don’t come to church on Sunday morning to think about new ideas or even the old important ones. They want to hear what they’ve been told before, with only some small variation on what they’ve been hearing all their lives, and then they want to go home and eat pot roast and say it was a good service and feel satisfied. But”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“People in their houses at night. These ordinary lives. Passing without their knowing it. I’d hoped to recapture something. The officer stared at him. The precious ordinary. I”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Love is the most important part of life isn't it. If you have love, you can live in this world in a true way and if you love each other you can see past everything and accept what you don't understand and forgive what you don't know or don't like. Love is all. Love is patient and boundless and right-hearted and long-suffering.

Move”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“The precious ordinary. I”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Lo aiutarono a trasferirsi in veranda e rimasero a guardare la pioggia che cadeva sull’erba e sulla ghiaia che ricopriva la strada. Nei punti più bassi si erano già formate delle pozzanghere e i pioppi argentati erano scuri e grondavano acqua. Lorraine sporse una mano nella pioggia e si picchettò la faccia, poi mise le mani a coppa per raccogliere l’acqua che cadeva dalla grondaia e la appoggiò sul volto di Dad. Lui rimase lì, tenendosi al bastone, con il viso che gocciolava. Lo fissarono, lui guardò dritto oltre il prato, al di là della recinzione di ferro, al di là della strada bagnata, fino al terreno adiacente, pensando a qualcosa. Non ha un buon odore? disse Mary. Già, rispose lui piano. Aveva gli occhi umidi, ma gli altri non avrebbero saputo dire se di lacrime o di pioggia”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Quante volte sono entrato e uscito da quella porta. Non è così, Mary?
Secondo te quante volte, caro?
Sei giorni alla settimana, cinquantadue settimane all’anno per cinquantacinque anni, rispose lui. Quanto fa?
Fa una vita intera.
È vero. È la vita di un uomo, disse Dad”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“He wants to see Daddy before he’s gone. They never cared for each other before. It’s how people are when somebody’s dying. They want to forget the past. Forgive things. Just so he doesn’t upset him.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“In the house Dad said, Go see about her, will you? She won’t talk to me now. Lorraine went out to the porch. Can I sit with you, Mom? No, I don’t want any company. I don’t want to speak to you or anybody else right now.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“onto the bare ground next to the cement foundation of the old house when Lorraine came out and said she had a phone call.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“I don’t want to bother your father, but I’ll come again if that’s all right. Yes. I think it would be. I don’t know that he’s very religious. No. Not in any orthodox way. I understand that. In his own way perhaps. Perhaps. Well. I’ll be going. He held out his hand to shake hers and instead she surprised him and hugged him. He was a good deal taller than she was. Thank you for coming, she said again.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“I don’t want to bother your father, but I’ll come again if that’s all right. Yes. I think it would be. I don’t know that he’s very religious. No. Not in any orthodox way. I understand that. In his own way perhaps. Perhaps.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“She did. It was hotter than billy hell out there. I’m glad you’ve come. She’s all tired out. I’m afraid she might get down too far. I never wanted her to have to take care of me like this.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“That’s not what I’m saying. Your best might not be good enough. This is my wife here. This lady means everything to me in the world. I hear you. But—”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“I might get me some kind of better grade of beer before I go. A guy I was talking to said something about Belgian beer. Maybe I’ll try some of that. If I can get it around here.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Someone would cut his name into the face of a tombstone and it would be as if he never was.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“People don’t want to be disturbed. They want assurance. They don’t come to church on Sunday morning to think about new ideas or even the old important ones. They want to hear what they’ve been told before, with only some small variation on what they’ve been hearing all their lives, and then they want to go home and eat pot roast and say it was a good service and feel satisfied.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“gate at the chain-link fence”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“They walked to the highway and turned past Shattuck’s Café”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“FORTY YEARS AGO,”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“I heard he was disciplined by the church for supporting some other preacher who came out homosexual in Denver. I believe it was something of that nature.”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“toward”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“preacher”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Front Range,”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Johnson women”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Johnson was a widow with long white hair worn in a knot at the back of her head”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction

“Alice,”
― Kent Haruf, Benediction