Catherine

“As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy.”
― George MacDonald, Phantastes

“We must do the thing we must
Before the thing we may;
We are unfit for any trust
Till we can and do obey.”
― George MacDonald, Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Vol. 2

“Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call reality? -- not so grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the gliding sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting sail below is fairer still...All mirrors are magic mirrors. The commonest room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass...There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning.”
― George MacDonald, Phantastes

“It is by loving and not by being loved, that one can come nearest to the soul of another.”
― George McDonald