Nathan Coulter Quotes

“Uncle Burley said hills always looked blue when you were far away from them. That was a pretty color for hills; the little houses and barns and fields looked so neat and quiet tucked against them. It made you want to be close to them. But he said that when you got close they were like the hills you’d left, and when you looked back your own hills were blue and you wanted to go back again. He said he reckoned a man could wear himself out going back and forth.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“We were the way we were; nothing could make us any different, and we suffered because of it. Things happened to us the way they did because we were ourselves.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“It seemed to us that we’d never thought of him before as a man who would die. He never had thought of himself in that way. Until that year, although he’d cursed his weakness and his age, he’d either ignored the idea of his death or had refused to believe in it. He’d only thought of himself as living.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“Big Ellis giggled. “We heard you were dead, Burley.” “So did I,” Uncle Burley said. “But I knew it was a lie as soon as I heard it.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“Oh Lord, make us able
To eat all that's on this table,
And if there's some we haven't got
Bring it to us while it's hot”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“Grandpa had owned his land and worked on it and taken his pride from it for so long that we knew him, and he knew himself, in the same way that we knew the spring. His life couldn’t be divided from the days he’d spent at work in his fields. Daddy had told us we didn’t know what the country would look like without him at work in the middle of it; and that was as true of Grandpa as it was of Daddy. We wouldn’t recognize the country when he was dead.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“Grandpa’s farm had belonged to our people ever since there had been a farm in that place, or people to own a farm. Grandpa’s father had left it to Grandpa and his other sons and daughters. But Grandpa had borrowed money and bought their shares. He had to have it whole hog or none, root hog or die, or he wouldn’t have it at all.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“When Uncle Burley had finished I said, “He’s not mad at you anymore.” And then Daddy cried. He didn’t say that he was glad Brother wasn’t mad at him, or that he was sorry for their fight. He just sat there, looking at his plate and chewing on a bite of corn bread, with tears running down his cheeks.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“Brother was gone and he wouldn’t be back. And things that had been so before would never be so again. We were the way we were, nothing could make us any different, and we suffered because of it. Things happened to us the way they did because we were ourselves.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“Behind us the walls of the house were dark; the lighted windows shone as if they were floating and might twist or slant or change places.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“Tobacco,' Jig said. 'I used to raise tobacco once. But I quit. I was plowing one morning, and the Lord said, "Jig, how'd you like for your daughter to smoke?" And I said, "I wouldn't like it, Lord. It's a sin for a woman to smoke." And I unhitched the mule right there in the middle of the row and left.'

'You say you left?'

'Left,' Jig said. 'I went fishing then. You know that's where He called them from. From fishing. One of these mornings He'll come and stand on the riverbank and He'll say, "Jig." And I'll say, "Yes, Lord?" And He'll say, "Follow me, Jig." And I will arise and follow Him. Aw, He ain't come yet. But He's coming. He's got to get my mansion ready first, but He'll be here.'

Then Jig told us about Heaven. He said it was a million miles square and a million miles high, and every street was gold and every house was a mansion. And at night every star was brighter than the sun.

'Do you know why He made the stars?'

Uncle Burley said he didn't know.

'He liked to hear them sing,' Jig said.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“We’d been living at Grandpa’s for a little more than a year when Mrs. Crandel died. And the next day Kate Helen Branch had a baby. Uncle Burley said that was just the way things were. They put one in and pull another one out.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter

“He said that when we finally did get the farm paid for we could tell everybody to go to hell. That was what he lived for, to own his farm without having to say please or thank you to a living soul.”
― Wendell Berry, Nathan Coulter