And old Boughton, if he could stand up out of his chair, out of his decrepitude and crankiness and sorrow and limitation, would abandon all those handsome children of his, mild and confident as they are, and follow after that one son whom he has never known, whom he has favored as one does a wound, and he would protect him as a father cannot, defend him with a strength he does not have, sustain him with a bounty beyond any resource he could ever dream of having.
("Gilead")
More Quotes from Marilynne Robinson:
To be useful was the best thing the old men ever hoped for themselves, and to be aimless was their worst fearMarilynne Robinson
Memory can make a thing seem to have been much more than it was.
Marilynne Robinson
A little too much anger, too often or at the wrong time, can destroy more than you would ever imagine.
Marilynne Robinson
I mean only respect when I say that your mother has always struck me as someone with whom the Lord might have chosen to spend some part of His mortal time
Marilynne Robinson
I felt, as I have often felt, that my failing the truth could have no bearing at all on the Truth itself, which could never conceivably be in any sense dependent on me or on anyone.
Marilynne Robinson
I think sometimes there might be an advantage in making people aware how worn and stale these old transgressions are. It might take some of the shine off them for those who are tempted.
Marilynne Robinson
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: Children Quotes, Dreams QuotesBased on Keywords: boughton, crankiness, decrepitude
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Thomas Jefferson
Life has been good to me. It's not like I missed an awful lot. I had a pretty good lick here. Every moment gets a little more important.
Michael Landon
When it comes to wilderness animals we have to make an effort to preserve what areas we can that they can be themselves in. Its come to a point though, clearly, where some species have to be cared for by humans if they are not going to disappear altogether.
Matthew Fox