How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It could be that God has not absconded but spread, as our vision and understanding of the universe have spread, to a fabric of spirit and sense so grand and subtle, so powerful in a new way, that we can only feel blindly of its hem. (1.17)
In short, learning changes our perception. Education and experience force consciousness to adapt.
Quote #2
The secret of seeing is, then, the pearl of great price. If I thought he could teach me to find it and keep it forever I would stagger barefoot across a hundred deserts after any lunatic at all. (2.37)
So many religious leaders promise to teach us to see the formerly invisible, and a desire to see what's hidden is one of the things that drives people to religious faith. Or, in Dillard's case, to Tinker Creek.
Quote #3
It is ironic that the one thing all religions recognize as separating us from our creator – our very self-consciousness—is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. (6.8)
In short, self-involvement limits our ability to be involved with others.
Quote #4
Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall. (6.13)
Dillard's belief is that grace is always there, just waiting to be found, but it's as elusive as a muskrat. We can only experience it if we shut up and wait.
Quote #5
What I call innocence is the spirit's unself-conscious state at any moment of pure devotion to any object. (6.18)
Passion means being so into something you're unafraid to dork out in public.
Quote #6
I have never understood why so many mystics of all creeds experience the presence of God on mountaintops […] It often feels best to lay low, inconspicuous, instead of waving your spirit around from high places like a lightning rod. (6.35)
To expose yourself, whether physically or emotionally, is to subject yourself to danger. It's also totally worth it, though—vulnerability can foster true connection.
Quote #7
You are God. You want to make a forest, something to hold the soil, lock up solar energy, and give off oxygen. Wouldn't it be simpler just to rough in a slab of chemicals, a green acre of goo? (8.5)
Dillard questions why God would spend so much time on form when all that's necessary is function. The visible universe indicates to her that beauty matters to the creator.
Quote #8
But it could be that our faithlessness is a cowering cowardice born of our very smallness, a massive failure of imagination. (8.55)
If you don't believe in God, Dillard suggests, it could be because you lack the capacity to believe that a force bigger than yourself could love you.
Quote #9
The question from agnosticism is, Who turned on the lights? The question from faith is, Whatever for? (8.56)
In other words, if you don't have to concern yourself with science, you can concern yourself with philosophy. What you believe depends largely on which discipline you find more compelling.