People Quotes by Marilynne Robinson

The great truth that is too often forgotten is that it is in the nature of people to do good to one…

— Marilynne Robinson

The best essays come from the moment in which people really need to work something out.

— Marilynne Robinson

It is one of the best traits of good people that they love where they pity. And this is truer of women…

— Marilynne Robinson

Cultures cherish artists because they are people who can say, Look at that.

— Marilynne Robinson

One of the things about writing fiction is that you create people that you feel, more or less, as though you know.

— Marilynne Robinson

I have always liked the phrase "nursing a grudge " because many people are tender of their resentments as of the thing…

— Marilynne Robinson

It seems to me some people just go around lookin' to get their faith unsettled. That has been the fashion for the…

— Marilynne Robinson

I don't think I would worry about an oversaturation of information if it was indeed information. It is the slovenly, hasty traffic…

— Marilynne Robinson

More generally, people who lived in a period when maternal, infant and childhood mortality were still high would have been tougher than…

— Marilynne Robinson

People don't acknowledge loneliness in themselves, and don't appreciate its benefits, the reflection and attentiveness that come with it, the deepened acquaintance…

— Marilynne Robinson

It seems to me people tend to forget that we are to love our enemies, not to satisfy some standard of righteousness…

— Marilynne Robinson

I'm a great admirer of secularism. At its best, I think it's one of the best things that we have. I don't…

— Marilynne Robinson

The accessibility and effective immortality of actual information is a magnificent phenomenon, a beautiful extension of human consciousness. It is too bad…

— Marilynne Robinson

These people who can see right through you never quite do you justice, because they never give you credit for the effort…

— Marilynne Robinson

To think that only faultless people are worthwhile seems like an incredible exclusion of almost everything of deep value in the human…

— Marilynne Robinson

The model for our early bankruptcy laws was Deuteronomy, the idea that, under certain circumstances - in Deuteronomy, it is simply the…

— Marilynne Robinson

When the Reformation became established, one of the things that was a question between Catholicism and the Reformation traditions was whether there…

— Marilynne Robinson

I think to the degree writers are serious, there is a greater tendency for them to write to themselves, because they're trying…

— Marilynne Robinson

That's the strangest thing about this life, about being in the ministry. People change the subject when they see you coming. And…

— Marilynne Robinson

The loss of seriousness seems to me to be, in effect, a loss of hope. I think that the thing that made…

— Marilynne Robinson

People who feel any sort of regret where you are concerned will suppose you are angry, and they will see anger in…

— Marilynne Robinson

John Calvin's theology emphasizes the sanctity of conscience, the sanctity of companionate marriage, and the obligation of those in power to attend…

— Marilynne Robinson

Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch you if they…

— Marilynne Robinson

I think I am like most people in letting myself worry about things that didn't matter. Concepts like quotidian and humdrum prevented…

— Marilynne Robinson

The twinkling of an eye. That is the most wonderful expression. I've thought from time to time it was the best thing…

— Marilynne Robinson

The attention of the congregation is a major part of the attention that the pastor gives to his or her utterance. It's…

— Marilynne Robinson

Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when…

— Marilynne Robinson

I am delighted if people find that kind of sustenance in novels, but perhaps it's because they don't read the Scripture that…

— Marilynne Robinson

People talk about how wonderful the world seems to children, and that's true enough. But children think they will grow into it…

— Marilynne Robinson

Somebody who had read Lila asked me, ‘Why do you write about the problem of loneliness?’ I said: ‘It’s not a problem.…

— Marilynne Robinson

There are worries that seem to me sustained by the love of worry. For example, that people are reading from screens, or…

— Marilynne Robinson

I really don't know why people have so much trouble now writing about religious faith. It is true that clichés can override…

— Marilynne Robinson

A sermon is a valuable thing now and so impressive when you do hear a good one - and there is a…

— Marilynne Robinson

I'm really disturbed by the degree to which I don't hear people saying, "Are we leaving the world better than we found…

— Marilynne Robinson

The idea that the universe itself is physically structured around hierarchy was sort of an integration of earlier science and theology that…

— Marilynne Robinson

She conceived of life as a road down which one traveled, an easy enough road through a broad country, and that one's…

— Marilynne Robinson

A sermon is a form that yields a certain kind of meaning in the same way that, say, a sonnet is a…

— Marilynne Robinson

We [Americans] inherited British law, which is like the new "reforms" that are being made now, in the sense that people are…

— Marilynne Robinson

One of the things that is nice about these old pastors - they were young at the time - who went into…

— Marilynne Robinson

Protestantism, of course, is much more explicitly divided into different traditions - the Pentecostals, the Anglicans. But there is the main tradition…

— Marilynne Robinson