Every spirit passing through the world fingers the tangible and mars the mutable, and finally has come to look and not to buy. Marilynne Robinson More Quotes by Marilynne Robinson More Quotes From Marilynne Robinson I think probably one of the important things that happened to me was growing up in Idaho in the mountains, in the woods, and having a very strong presence of the wilderness around me. That never felt like emptiness. It always felt like presence. Marilynne Robinson growing-up strong thinking You have to live with your mind your whole life. Marilynne Robinson whole-life whole mind Grace has a grand laughter in it. Marilynne Robinson laughter grace 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. Marilynne Robinson doctrine doubt mind ... but it's your existence I love you for, mainly. Existence seems to me now the most remarkable thing that could ever be imagined. Marilynne Robinson existence remarkable love-you We inhabit, we are part of, a reality for which explanation is much too poor and small. Marilynne Robinson explanation poor reality And often enough, when we think we are protecting ourselves, we are struggling against our rescuer. Marilynne Robinson enough struggle thinking --"There is no justice in love...it is only the glimpse or parable of an incomprehensible reality... the eternal breaking in on the the temporal. Marilynne Robinson glimpse justice reality Fact explains nothing. On the contrary, it is fact that requires explanation. Marilynne Robinson explanation inspiring facts I want to feel that art is an utterance made in good faith by one human being to another. Marilynne Robinson utterance want art To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it? And here again is a foreshadowing - the world will be made whole. For to wish for a hand on one's hair is all but to feel it. So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again. Marilynne Robinson hair giving hands A sermon is a form that yields a certain kind of meaning in the same way that, say, a sonnet is a form that deals with a certain kind of meaning that has to do with putting things in relation to each other, allowing for the fact of complexity reversal, such things. Sermons are, at their best, excursions into difficulty that are addressed to people who come there in order to hear that. Marilynne Robinson yield order people 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. Marilynne Robinson justice giving people The assumption behind any theology that I've ever been familiar with is that there is a profound beauty in being, simply in itself. Poetry, at least traditionally, has been an educing of the beauty of language, the beauty of experience, the beauty of the working of the mind, and so on. The pastor does, indeed, appreciate it. Marilynne Robinson appreciate profound past You see how it is godlike to love the being of someone. Your existence is a delight to us. I hope you never have to long for a child as I did, but oh, what a splendid thing it has been that you came finally, and what a blessing to enjoy you now for almost seven years. Marilynne Robinson blessing children years It's a difficult thing to describe theology, what it means and how it disciplines thinking. Certainly, theology is the level at which the highest inquiry into meaning and ethics and beauty coincides with the largest-scale imagination of the nature of reality itself. Marilynne Robinson mean reality thinking The attention of the congregation is a major part of the attention that the pastor gives to his or her utterance. It's very exceptional. I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy a good sermon. People who are completely nonreligious know a good sermon when they hear one. Marilynne Robinson giving people past If you had to summarize the Old Testament, the summary would be: stop doing this to yourselves. Marilynne Robinson summary old-testament would-be To recognize our bias toward error should teach us modesty and reflection, and to forgive it should help us avoid the inhumanity of thinking we ourselves are not as fallible as those who, in any instance, seem most at fault. Science can give us knowledge, but it cannot give us wisdom. Nor can religion, until it puts aside nonsense and distraction and becomes itself again. Marilynne Robinson errors reflection thinking Then there is the matter of my mother's abandonment of me. Again, this is the common experience. They walk ahead of us, and walk too fast, and forget us, they are so lost in thoughts of their own, and soon or late they disappear. The only mystery is that we expect it to be otherwise. Marilynne Robinson common-experience matter mother
