How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Cruelty is a mystery, and the waste of pain. (1.18)
Translation: When you're cruel, you cause needless suffering to the object of your cruelty. Those who aren't inclined to be mean can't comprehend why anyone else would be.
Quote #2
"The caterpillars in distress," he concludes, "starved, shelterless, chilled with cold at night, cling obstinately to the silk ribbon covered hundreds of time, because they lack the rudimentary glimmers of reason which would advise them to abandon it." (4.31)
This is functional fixedness at its most sinister. The caterpillars are unable to stop doing what they've always done, even if it kills them.
Quote #3
Dragonfly nymphs, for instance, are easily able to shed a leg or two to escape a tight spot, but even dragonfly nymphs get stuck in the algae strands and starve. (7.33)
Escaping one kind of suffering doesn't mean another isn't waiting around the corner—nature is full of traps, and it doesn't care how many times you free yourself. You get no cleverness points.
Quote #4
The frog that the giant water bug sucked had, presumably, a rush of pure feeling for about a second, before its brain turned to broth. I, however, have been sapped by various strong feelings about the incident almost daily for several years. (10.61)
Sometimes the witnesses of suffering carry forward the suffering they witness. Images of another being's pain are difficult things to carry inside your head.
Quote #5
Our excessive emotions are so patently painful and harmful to us as a species that I can hardly believe that they evolved. (10.63)
In order to suffer—at least emotionally—we have to know what suffering is. For example, worrying about something can be worse than the thing you're worrying about.
Quote #6
Just a glimpse, Moses; a cliff in the rock here, a mountain-top there, and the rest is denial and longing. (11.69)
Dillard refers here to the story of Moses begging for a glimpse of God, but God says Moses can't handle seeing his face. As a consolation prize, he offers Moses a glimpse of his back, which is sort of like giving you an Oreo and only letting you eat the cookie part.
Quote #7
Earlier a bobwhite had cried from the orchardside cliff, now here, now there, and his round notes swelled sorrowfully over the meadow. A bobwhite who is still calling in summer is lorn; he has never found a mate. (12.37)
To keep crying out for something you can't have can either be seen as boundless hope or prolonging your own suffering.
Quote #8
Is this what it's like, I thought then, and think now: a little blood here, a chomp there, and still we live, trampling the grass? Must everything whole be nibbled? (13.16)
After a few months at the creek, Annie realizes that almost every creature she sees is scarred in some way; most of the insects are missing limbs. Being whole, she decides, is the exception rather than the rule.
Quote #9
It was the way that frog's eyes crumpled. His mouth was a gash of terror; the shining skin of his breast and shoulder shivered once and sagged, reduced to an empty purse; but oh those two snuffed eyes! They crinkled, the comprehension poured out of them… (15.12)
Watching the life literally drain out of a creature's body is awful, but for Annie, watching the light go out of its eyes is the worst part. It's like watching someone pull the shutters on the windows to the soul.
Quote #10
We are people; we are permitted to have dealings with the creator and we must speak up for the creation. God look at what you've done to this creature, look at the sorrow, the cruelty, the long damned waste! (15.13)
If man is made in the image of God, and man is cruel, does that mean God is cruel? It's hard not to think so when you spend a year watching things die.