If these laws [in the Bible] belonged to any other ancient culture we would approach them very differently. We need not bother to reject the code of Hammurabi. Presumably it is because Moses is still felt to make some claim on us that this project of discrediting his law is persisted in with such energy. The unscholarly character of the project may derive from the supposed familiarity of the subject.
Marilynne RobinsonI am interested in Scripture and theology. This is an interest that I can assume I would share with a pastor, so that makes me a little bit prone to use that kind of character, perhaps, just at the moment. Then there is also the fact that, having been a church member for many years, I am very aware of how much pastors enrich people's experience, people for whom they are significant. I know that it's a kind of custom of American literature and culture to slang them. I don't think there is any reason why that needs to be persisted in.
Marilynne RobinsonEvery spirit passing through the world fingers the tangible and mars the mutable, and finally has come to look and not to buy.
Marilynne RobinsonIt is a good thing to know what it is to be poor, and a better thing if you can do it in company.
Marilynne RobinsonThe old man always said we should attend to the things we have some hope of understanding, and eternity isn't one of them. Well, this world isn't one either.
Marilynne RobinsonIt is an amazing thing to watch people laugh, the way it sort of takes them over. Sometimes they really do struggle with it . . . so I wonder what it is and where it comes from, and I wonder what it expends out of your system, so that you have to do it till you're done, like crying in a way, I suppose, except that laughter is much more easily spent.
Marilynne Robinson