620 Quotes by Marilynne Robinson

There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding.

It was a source of both terror and comfort to me then that I often seemed invisible – incompletely and minimally existent, in fact. It seemed to me that I made no impact on the world, and that in exchange I was privileged to watch it unawares.

There is an earned innocence, I believe, which is as much to be honored as the innocence of children.

I am delighted if people find that kind of sustenance in novels, but perhaps it’s because they don’t read the Scripture that they are comparing it to, which would perhaps provide deeper sustenance than many contemporary novels.

While the Citizen can entertain aspirations for the society as a whole and take pride in its achievements, the Taxpayer, as presently imagined, simply does not want to pay taxes. The societal consequences of this aversion – failing infrastructure, for example – are to be preferred to any inroad on his or her momentary fiefdom.

He was waiting to see what she would make of him, as they say. And then he would be what she made of him.

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.

But instead I would comfort them by saying we would never knoew what their young men had been spared. Most of them took me to mean they were spared the trenches and the mustard gas, but what I really meant was that they were spared the act of killing.

I’ve developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.