Michael O'Brien > Quotes

“Words are gold, split and shared as coinage, small pebbles, emblems offered back and forth-given, received; given, received-expanding the vocabulary of the soul”
― Michael O'Brien, Island of the World: A Novel

“To presume that we have received in advance a precise decryption of the symbolic prophecies in the book of Revelation—a route map or survivalist manual, as it were—is to weaken our faculty of discernment and our openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the angels. This weakness can lead us to the tyranny of unholy fears on one hand or to self-reliance on the other, and both reactions will bring about increased vulnerability to the adversary’s deceptions.”
― Michael O'Brien, Elijah in Jerusalem

“power had trampled his weary, badly-worn face. The Elignon’s voice burrowed into the holy man’s mind. “Welcome home, Prime Guardian.”
― Michael O'Brien, Prime Guardian of the Dead

“I have been defeated, and in the defeat I have won myself. It is a pleasure to die at the hands of Life.”
― Michael O'Brien

“I am coming to see that it is not so much a question of finding the right place, the right time, the ideal marriage. Neither life nor happiness hinges upon such things. It is wholly within. It is response to what is given. It is choice.”
― Michael O'Brien