Marilynne Robinson quotes

There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, everyone of them sufficient. (Marilynne Robinson)
A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Christianity is a life, not a doctrine... I'm not saying never doubt or question. The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I'm saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
... but it's your existence I love you for, mainly. Existence seems to me now the most remarkable thing that could ever be imagined. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Any human face is a claim on you, because you can't help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant. I consider that to be one kind of vision, as mystical as any. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
I think hope is the worst thing in the world. I really do. It makes a fool of you while it lasts. And then when it's gone, it's like there's nothing left of you at all . . . except what you can't be rid of. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
It felt very good to have him walking beside her. Good like rest and quiet, like something you could live without but you needed anyway. That you had to learn how to miss, and then you'd never stop missing it. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Of my conception I know only what you know of yours. It occurred in darkness and I was unconsenting... By some bleak alchemy what had been mere unbeing becomes death when life is mingled with it. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
He will wipe the tears from all faces.' It takes nothing from the loveliness of the verse to say that is exactly what will be required. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
...not deciding to act would be identical with deciding not to act. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
She closed one eye and looked at me and said, "I know there is a blessing in this somewhere." It is worth living long enough to outlast whatever sense of grievance you may acquire. Another reason why you must be careful of your health. (Marilynne Robinson)
Boughton says he has more ideas about heaven every day. He said, "Mainly I just think about the splendors of the world and multiply by two. I'd multiply by ten or twelve if I had the energy. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
. . . there is an absolute disjunction between our Father's love and our deserving. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
These people who can see right through you never quite do you justice, because they never give you credit for the effort you're making to be better than you actually are, which is difficult and well meant and deserving of some little notice. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent, and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal insufficiency to the world, and the other is when we feel the world's mortal insufficiency to us. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
I don't know exactly what covetous is, but in my experience it is not so much desiring someone else's virtue or happiness as rejecting it, taking offense at the beauty of it. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Weary or bitter of bewildered as we may be, God is faithful. He lets us wander so we will know what it means to come home. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
There is more beauty than our eyes can bear, precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Grace has a grand laughter in it. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday. It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain. You can feel the silent and invisible life. (Marilynne Robinson)
This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Memory can make a thing seem to have been much more than it was. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
And often enough, when we think we are protecting ourselves, we are struggling against our rescuer. View quote
Marilynne Robinson
Memory is the sense of loss, and loss pulls us after it. View quote
Marilynne Robinson