Eden Quotes

“His hands, his arms, can hold the pieces in place temporarily, maybe even for a long time, but he can never truly put them back together. That's not his job. He's not the hero and he's not the enemy and he's not a god. He's just a boy. And I'm just a girl, a girl who needs to pick up her own pieces and put them back together herself.”
― Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

“There's a brief moment of silence for what we've lost. And in that moment, it ends. Finally. The past of us officially comes to an end.”
― Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

“I'm scared. Really scared he's about to leave me. And more scared because I don't want him to.”
― Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

“And around the time the moon and sun are coexisting in the sky, turning the room inside out with that eerie, yet calming pale glow, I have a terrible thought: I like him. I really, really like him. Like, love-like him. Like, with my metaphorical heart. Like, if I had an x-ray, it would show an arrow lodged right into the center of that bloody, bleeding mass of muscle in my chest. And I know, somehow, that things have changed between us.”
― Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

“We may always struggle with our pasts, but we can rest assured that we’ll always have someone else who can pull us forward.”
― Marie Lu, Rebel

“He holds me hand as we walk up the driveway. It feels like it's a million miles away, like it's taken a million years to. finally get here. And I think: Maybe I'll explain this to some people. Maybe Mara. Maybe I'll apologize to some people. Maybe Steve. Maybe I'll try a real relationship someday, one without all the lies and games. Maybe I'll go to college, even, and maybe I'll figure out that I'm actually goo d at something. Maybe he'll get what he deserves. Maybe I'll never find it in my heart to forgive him. And maybe there's nothing wrong with that, either. All. these maybes swimming around my head make me think that 'maybe' could just be another word for hope.”
― Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

“Who is the real God in the Garden of Eden? Is it the ignorant “God” who tries to keep humanity away from knowledge – who forbids Adam and Eve from accessing knowledge – or is it the Serpent who leads Adam and Eve to knowledge and transforms them through the gift of consciousness, and, finally, superconsciousness? The False God is always an enemy of knowledge, and the True God always a promoter of knowledge.”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“The rag rug
That had heaped out onto your lap
Slid to the floor. There it lay, coiled
Between us. However it came,
And wherever it found its tongue, its fang, its meaning,
It survived our Eden.”
― Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters

“In either hand the hastning Angel caught
Our lingring Parents, and to th' Eastern Gate
Led them direct, and down the Cliff as fast
To the subjected Plaine; then disappeer'd.
They looking back, all th' Eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat,
Wav'd over by that flaming Brand, the Gate
With dreadful Faces throng'd and fierie Armes:
Som natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon;
The World was all before them, where to choose
Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:
They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,
Through Eden took thir solitarie way.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“It is not weakness to open your heart. It does not make you less of a man to ask for help. To turn to someone when you’re vulnerable. To need a shoulder to cry on. You don’t have to bear the weight of anything by yourself.”
― Marie Lu, Rebel

“It’s not the fruit’s fault it was forbidden. An object can only be a conduit for evil; whether it is an apple in the Garden of Eden or a smartphone which bears its image some six thousand years later.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“But the [Eden] story takes a dramatically different turn: it tells of the couple succumbing to fear, blame, and the will to power, which from Cain and Lamech to today continues to engulf the world.”
― William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder

“Science alone cannot provide the impetus for changing human conduct. It does not provide a compelling warrant for acknowledging the intrinsic value of life or its sanctity.... If, however, we take our cue from Genesis, damaging creation is tantamount to defacing God's sanctuary, an act of utter sacrilege.”
― William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder

“Read ecologically, the psalm [Ps 104] claims God's biophilia as a model for humanity's role and presence in the world. Delighting in creation has nothing to do with exploiting the world for the common greed. Rather, it has all to do with receiving the world's abundance for the common good, a sufficiency to be shared, not hoarded.”
― William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder

“No subordination pertains in the garden. The adam's service to the garden is rooted in his kinship with the ground. Marriage, according to the Yahwist, is founded on the kindship intimacy of partnership and companionship (2:24). Life in the garden is one of fruitful work, abundance, and intimate companionship. In the garden there is neither fear nor shame, even before God. These are 'lacks' that are meant to endure. But, alas, they do not.”
― William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder

“As God in Genesis 1 is no imperious warrior, so human beings are not conquerors of creation. The language of dominion lacks all sense of exploitation (1:26, 28). The hoarding of resources is implicitly forbidden in the account: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees are granted to animals and humans alike (1:30). Absent is any hint of the savage competition for resources. God's gift of sustenance is one of abundance, not scarcity, to be shared, not hoarded.”
― William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder

“Who needs an external God? No one in the Church of the Serpent does. Two can play the Expulsion Game. If God expels us from his Eden, we can expel him from our Eden, because we ourselves are now gods. The Olympian gods replaced the older generation of gods, the Titans. The old gods are always replaced. The Biblical God, too, must be replaced.”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge

“And thus the... valley became a garden again, and the inheritance, which had been lost by cruelty, was regained by love.”
― John Ruskin, The King of the Golden River; or, The Black Brothers, a Legend of Stiria. Illustrated by Richard Doy

“New York used to have Edenlike summers.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“The fall from Eden is really an allegory for our transition from hunter-gatherers to an agrarian society. Before the fall we lived in a utopia, free of artificial social constructs.”
― Eleanor Davis, How to Be Happy

“I meant to come sooner, but it's been madness at the estate. We're going into harvest, and I've been busy with the baby-"
"Where is she?" Merritt asked eagerly. She hadn't yet seen Phoebe's daughter, Eden, who had been born six months earlier. "You've brought her, I hope."
"Had to," Phoebe replied wryly, gesturing to her button-front bodice, strained by the full bosom of a nursing mother.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise

“even the idyllic garden of Eden was a war zone. The command to rule and subdue put God's image bearers on high alert that fierce resistance lay ahead.”
― Carolyn Custis James, Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women

“God's image bearers were divided, and the battle of the sexes commenced. Instead of ruling and subduing the earth, they turned against one another and sought to rule and subdue each other.”
― Carolyn Custis James, Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women

“A few hours ago, the prospect of disappointing someone, especially Calla Thorn, would have sent her into a spiral of panic and self-loathing. She knew that about herself. Her therapist had pointed it out multiple times. Recognizing the pattern was supposed to be the first step to combating it, though most of the time it just meant she was panicked, full of self-loathing, AND acutely aware of how irrational it all was.”
― Destiny Soria, Fire with Fire

“You can't hate a proov when you're near one, because you want to be like them, you ache to be like them. You want to be perfect, too, and you know if you were improved you'd act just like they do, and feel what they feel, and glide through the world with sky-colored eyes and hair like sunlight, and nothing dirty or broken could ever touch you.”
― Rodman Philbrick, The Last Book in the Universe

“Everything has lain in ruin until now, the world is made up of wants—this is lacking, that is gone. But why is it like that? Couldn’t there have been everything in excess—warmth, and food, and roofs over people’s heads, and beauty? Whom would it have hurt? Why was such a world as this created? There is nothing permanent under the sun, everything passes, and you won’t even have time to get a good look at it. But why is it like that? Could there not have been more time, and more reflection?”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“The rise of consciousness, synaptic pruning, hormonal shifts, and transitions in brainwave patterns, all expel the child from Eden and push it into the normal world. Adam and Eve always have to leave paradise to grow up.”
― Rob Armstrong, Children See Dead People: Children's Spooky Powers

“Fünf Minuten im Garten Eden sind besser als ein ganzes Leben in der Hölle.”
― Mirjam Pressler, Wenn das Glück kommt, muss man ihm einen Stuhl hinstellen

“Democracy appeared when God created Eve and told Adam to choose a wife.”
― Ljupka Cvetanova, Yet Another New Land

“If this was indeed the ancient land of Eden, then not even a memory of its former splendour remained.”
― Storm Constantine, Stealing Sacred Fire