He will wipe the tears from all faces.' It takes nothing from the loveliness of the verse to say that is exactly what will be required
Marilynne RobinsonRead
Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever have been otherwise. Loneliness is an absolute discovery.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Loneliness leads to profound self-discovery and realization of oneβs experience of existence.
In this quote by Marilynne Robinson, the idea conveyed is that true solitude allows individuals to explore their inner selves and come to terms with who they are. The experience of loneliness serves as a critical and enlightening phase of self-discovery, leading to insights about one's identity and existence that can often be obscured in the presence of others.
Themes
LonelinessSelf-DiscoveryExistenceSolitudeIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mental health, one might reference this quote to highlight the importance of understanding one's feelings.
More from Marilynne Robinson
All quotes βIt seems to me there is less meanness in atheism, by a good measure. It seems that the spirit of religious self-righteousness this article deplores is precisely the spirit in which it is written. Of course he's right about many things, one of them being the destructive potency of religious self-righteousness. (p. 146)
Marilynne RobinsonRead
A narrow pond would form in the orchard, water clear as air covering grass and black leaves and fallen branches, all around it black leaves and drenched grass and fallen branches, and on it, slight as an image in an eye, sky, clouds, trees, our hovering faces and our cold hands.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
The moon looks wonderful in this warm evening light, just as a candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning. Light within light...It seems to me to be a metaphor for the human soul, the singular light within that great general light of existence.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
There are worries that seem to me sustained by the love of worry. For example, that people are reading from screens, or listening to recorded books. Why scold the impulse to enjoy language and narrative in whatever form it takes?
Marilynne RobinsonRead
Teaching is a distraction and a burden, but it's also an incredible stimulus. And a reprieve, in a way. When you're trying to work on something and it's not going anywhere, you can go to school and there's a two-and-a-half-hour block of time in which you can accomplish something.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
Similar quotes
It is advertising and the logic of consumerism that governs the depiction of reality in the mass media.
Christopher LaschRead
My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind.
Langston HughesRead
I found earthquakes, even when I was in them, deeply satisfying, abruptly revealed evidence of the scheme in action. That the schemes could destroy the works of man might be a personal regret but remained, in the larger picture I had come to recognize, a matter of abiding indifference. No eye was on the sparrow. No eye was watching me.
Joan DidionRead
The arms are fair, When the intent of bearing them is just.
William ShakespeareRead
If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.
Maya AngelouRead
A kingdom man is a man who visibly demonstrates the comprehensive rule of God underneath the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of his life.
Tony EvansRead