The Sparrow (The Sparrow, #1)

by Mary Doria Russell

Cunctando regitur mundus: Waiting, one conquers all.

Rather than deny the existence of something he couldn’t perceive himself, he acknowledged the authenticity of his uncertainty and carried on, praying in the face of his doubt.

“Perhaps this is because we can’t understand the answers, because we are incapable of knowing God’s ways and God’s thoughts. We are, after all, only very clever tailless primates, doing the best we can, but limited. Perhaps we must all own up to being agnostic, unable to know the unknowable.”

“The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne’s are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demanding that God yield up His answers, perhaps some day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God.”

sainthood, like genius, is rooted in a sort of inspired persistence. It’s a consistent willing of one thing.

I try to keep my mind stretched around both experiences of God: the transcendent, the intimate. And then,” he said, grinning briefly, “there are the days when I think that underneath it all, God has got to be a cosmic comedian.”

Why, he had once wondered, would a perfect God create the universe? To be generous with it, he believed now. For the pleasure of seeing pure gifts appreciated.

‘Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.’ ” “But the sparrow still falls,”