It 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 RobinsonThis is not to say that joy is a compensation for loss, but that each of them, joy and loss, exists in its own right and must be recognised for what it is ... So joy can be joy and sorrow can be sorrow, with neither of them casting either light or shadow on the other.
Marilynne RobinsonThe mind has a complex life that can seem quite autonomous - dreams, obsessions, unwilled memory are all instances of this.
Marilynne RobinsonIt is one of the best traits of good people that they love where they pity. And this is truer of women than of men.
Marilynne RobinsonI have always liked the phrase "nursing a grudge " because many people are tender of their resentments as of the thing nearest their hearts.
Marilynne RobinsonAny fatherโฆmust finally give his child up to the wilderness and trust to the providence of God. It seems almost a cruelty for one generation to beget another when parents can secure so little for their children, so little safety, even in the best circumstances. Great faith is required to give the child up, trusting God to honor the parentsโ love for him by assuring that there will indeed be angels in that wilderness.
Marilynne Robinson