the dog Quotes

“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

“Have you ever walked with your dog on a summer’s morning on the seashore? Or walked with him on an autumn’s afternoon when the leaves are in full color?”
Inevitably, the client would say yes.
“And did it sometimes feel that all of Nature was your own room? That you could be there forever?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s what dogs do. They destroy time.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“This dog, who shall be under your care, belongs to the best of humankind’s creation. For man transformed that which he feared into something which could love him. The dog, Theo, is the great witness to the one truth. There is but the one truth. Four words like my tale. The truth is this: Love triumphs over fear.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“Master the dog and you shall master yourself.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“All the forgotten beauty of his twenty-nine years poured over Theo. The beauty of such memory filled him. He watched as the white cat with the electric-blue eyes turned away. There, in front of the cat, stood the bright bridge, the tie between the immense eternities, of time before birth, of time after death. The ghosts of the yet-to-be-born and the ghosts of the dead both hovered amidst the white-breasted nuthatches poking their pecking beaks into the snow, searching for seed.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“Shadow’s heart stopped. While Theo did not observe it with his eyes, he felt the life juice leave the dog’s body. In the final shudder of the death throe, Shadow gave up his ghost.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“Never look back unless backwards is your destination.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“No, no,” howled Shadow. “Do not keep me here!”
“Do you not love the boy?” said the voice of the sea.
“Love is terrible!” Shadow howled.
“I know,” replied the sea.
“It is full of hurt.”
“It is. But do you not love the boy?”
“I do love the boy!” the dog cried.
“You cannot leave the boy in this storm, not if you truly love him,” she said.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“All life is sacred! Even the blessed earth you take into your mouth.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“We did it, boy,” she said. Her words pricked his ears. He watched her radiant smile. “Theo is a lover,” she whispered.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“Dogs were once wolves.”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog

“Master the dog, and in so doing you shall master yourself.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“Every rhythm prepares a future.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“She would talk of castles and princesses and a woman named Scheherazade who had a thousand and one stories to tell. Shadow loved it when Emma told him her dreams. With her little warm fingers, Emma stroked his head as if he were but a puppy with all the strength of his youth yet to come, for the greatest joy in life is the conviction that we are loved in spite of ourselves. His legs may have been faded yellow but Shadow knew that he was loved by Theo’s daughter.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“There was nothing of which to be afraid. The only thing to fear was the evil men did because they believed the dark cloak of night, like Ted did, covered their offenses.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“I have been fortunate, he thought. I have known many mothers. Alice and Lora and Oota Dabun, but I will always recall my first mom when I was but a Lost Boy. Of all my mothers, I will always remember my Wendy most.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“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.”
“Yes,” said Emma. “He was a good teacher to me too. He was also a wonderful runway model.”
He handed her the polaroid. She examined its rivulets and splotches. She put her thumb on the smudges, rubbing them. To Theo, it seemed she knew of the eyes and mouth that once had been. Then the full gravity of the circumstance fell upon her. Emma wept. She was now a girl with a crack in her heart. The sorrows of the world were now available to her. Soon, she would know their beauty.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“Theo was struck by his dog, even in death. For while Theo was away at school or sleeping or distracted, Shadow, well, Shadow was still out there in the neighborhood, making friends.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“That is the one thing sorrow surely does—in our pain, it reveals the deep treasures of this marred and beautiful world. And guides like Shadow do this for us—they make us travelers. They break our hearts so we can flow to the greater heart where happiness, too, becomes a sacred matter.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“It is impossible to stop cadence. A bell rings long after the clapper hits the cup.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“Wolves stood outside our fires, and humans were terrified,” answered Ahanu. “Yet our warrior-fathers did not kill them. The wolves came from Mother Earth. They were part of us. So, we brought what we feared to the warmth of the flame. Before the fire, we trained them. We loved them. We bred them to be useful to our tribes. Over the many years, what had frightened us now became our greatest allies. Together, these dogs and we people fought against the darkness of the wood.”

Theo blinked, trying to understand. He looked at the golden puppy on the ground, running through the feet and legs of the adults. Then to Ahanu. “But, sir, why do you tell me this?” Theo asked.

“This dog, who shall be under your care, belongs to the best of humankind’s creation. For man transformed that which he feared into something which could love him. The dog, Theo, is the great witness to the one truth. There is but the one truth. Four words like my tale. The truth is this: Love triumphs over fear. Remember what I say for I know you. Do not ask me how I know that you live in a storm of fury . . .” Then he said softly, intimately, “. . . and fear. But take heart, for love has overcome the wild world. Dogs were once wolves.”
― Steven James Taylor, the dog

“Do not hide. All life is sacred! Even the blessed earth you take into your mouth.”
― Steven James Taylor, 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

“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

“The storm arrived without warning.”
― 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

“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

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

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

“What good are we if we can't imagine?”
― David Paul Kirkpatrick, the dog