Marilynne Robinson Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. Love is holy because it is like grace--the worthiness of its object is never really what matters. Gilead

2. 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.

3. When something ought to be true then it proves to be a very powerful truth. Gilead

4. ... how can one human being mean so much to another human being in terms of peace and assurance, as if loyalty were as real as gravity. Jack

5. A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension. Gilead

6. Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch you if they want, but you need not see them. You simply say, "Here are the perimeters of our attention. If you prowl around under the windows till the crickets go silent, we will pull the shades. If you wish us to suffer your envious curiosity, you must permit us not to notice it." Anyone with one solid human bond is that smug, and it is the smugness as much as the comfort and safety that lonely people covet and admire. Housekeeping

7. I didn't feel very much at home in the world, that was a fact. Now I do. Gilead

8. 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. Home

9. You can know a thing to death and be for all purposes completely ignorant of it. A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension. Gilead