Quotessence
Home / Authors / Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleThinkingIfsKnowsWorldSeemsHumansHas BeensRealityFactsGraceFeelsKindLittlesSaidTheologyWayWellsChildrenCourses

Famous Marilynne Robinson Quotes

“If you confront insult or antagonism, your first impulse would be to respond in kind. But if you think, as it were, This is an emissary sent from the Lord, and some benefit is inteded for me, first of all the occasion to demonstrate my faithfulness, the chance to show that I do in some small degree participate in the grace that saved me, you are free to act otherwise than as circumstances would seem to dictate. You are free to act by your own lights. You are freed at the same time of the impulse to hate or resent that person.”

GraceHumilityPatienceSelf ControlFaithfulnessSaved By Grace
Book:Gilead
Create image

“I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you.”

IfsMenWritingWellsMayChildrenLittlesDoeHas BeensDoneSeemsRememberBehindsWonderDoubtGraceMiracleTownsGreat ThingsNo DoubtOld ManSooner Or LaterGod's GraceRemember MeShabbyLittle Towns
Book:Gilead: A Novel
Create image

“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. ... If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace.”

IfsMayStillsUsedOrderUnderstandingGracePossibilityReadyForgivingErrorsPosturePapa
Author:Marilynne Robinson
Create image

“Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it. I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave - that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm. And therefore, this courage allows us, as the old men said, to make ourselves useful. It allows us to be generous, which is another way of saying exactly the same thing.”

ThinkingMenWayHas BeensSaidHandsEyeAcceptingGraceBearsHonorBraveHarmAcknowledgeGenerousOld ManTheologianBe BraveAnother WayStewardshipPrecious Things
Book:Gilead: A Novel
Create image