I would advise you against defensiveness on priciple. it precludes the best eventualities along with the worst. At the most basic level it expresses a lack of faith. Marilynne Robinson More Quotes by Marilynne Robinson More Quotes From Marilynne Robinson Writing nonfiction has been my most serious education, and for all those years it kept me from even glancing in the direction of despair. Marilynne Robinson me serious education writing The mind, whatever else it is, is a constant of everyone's experience, and, in more ways than we know, the creator of the reality that we live within... Nothing is more essential to us. Marilynne Robinson live experience mind reality