Roman Catholic Bishops

"No sooner does a divine gift reveal itself in youth or maid than its market value becomes the decisive consideration, and the poor young creatures are offered for sale, as we might sell angels who had strayed among us."

"We have lost the old love of work, of work which kept itself company, which was fair weather and music in the heart, which found its reward in the doing, craving neither the flattery of vulgar eyes nor the gold of vulgar men."

"God has not made a world which suits all; how shall a sane man expect to please all?"

"Taste, of which the proverb says there should be no dispute, is precisely the subject which needs discussion."

"Though what we accept be true, it is a prejudice unless we ourselves have considered and understood why and how it is true."

"It is unpleasant to turn back, though it be to take the right way."

"When the mind has grasped the matter, words come like flowers at the call of spring."

"Thy money, thy office, thy reputation are nothing; put away these phantom clothings, and stand like an athlete stripped for the battle."

"Passion is begotten of passion, and it easily happens, as with the children of great men, that the base is the offspring of the noble."

"The fields and the flowers and the beautiful faces are not ours, as the stars and the hills and the sunlight are not ours, but they give us fresh and happy thoughts.|"

"Few know the joys that spring from a disinterested curiosity. It is like a cheerful spirit that leads us through worlds filled with what is true and fair, which we admire and love because it is true and fair."

"It is held that one fulfils his whole duty when he is industrious in his business or vocation, observing also the decencies of domestic, civil, and religious life. But activity of this kind stirs only the surface of our being, leaving what is most divine to starve; and when it is made the one important thing, men lose sense for what is high and holy, and become commonplace, mechanical, and hard. Science is valuable for them as a means to comfort and wealth; morality, as an aid to success; religion, as an agent of social order. In their eyes those who devote themselves to ideal aims and ends are as foolish as the alchemists, since the only real world is that of business and politics, or of business simply, since politics is business."

"In the world of thought a man’s rank is determined, not by his average work, but by his highest achievement."

"The test of the worth of work is its effect on the worker. If it degrade him, it is bad; if it ennoble him, it is good."

"Nam qui maxume doctus sibi videtur, dictionem sanam et insanam ferme appetitu pari revolvit, non amplius concupiscens erecta quae laudet quam despecta quae rideat. atque in hunc modum scientia pompa proprietas linguae Latinae iudiciis otiosorum maximo spretui est, quorum scurrilitati neglegentia comes hoc volens tantum legere, quod carpat, sic non utitur litteris, quod abutitur."

"Ex hoc barbaricis abacta plectris spernit senipedem stilum Thalia, ex quo septipedes videt patronos."

"Quid me, etsi valeam, parare carmen Fescenninicolae iubes Diones inter crinigeras situm catervas et Germanica verba sustinentem, laudantem tetrico subinde vultu quod Burgundio cantat esculentus infundens acido comam butyro?"

"Mors obruit illos, non timor; invicti perstant animoque supersunt jam prope post animam."

"O neccessitas abiecta nascendi, vivendi misera dura moriendi."

"Hi sunt, quos timent etiam qui timentur."

"Fyrst I protest, beaw schirris, by зour leif Beis weill avisit my wark or зhe reprief; Consider it warly, reid oftar than anys, Weill at a blenk sle poetry nocht tayn is."

"Arguably the best version of Virgil in English poetry."

"About Douglas as a translator there may be two opinions; about his Aeneid (Prologues and all) as an English book there can be only one. Here a great story is greatly told and set off with original embellishments which are all good – all either delightful or interesting – in their diverse ways."

"Gavin Douglas, set on a particular labour, with his mind full of Latin quantitative metre, attains a robuster versification than you are likely to find in Chaucer…the texture of Gavin's verse is stronger, the resilience greater."

"As to the text accordyng never a deill, Mair than langis to the cart the fift quheill."

"And al smail fowlys syngis on the spray: Welcum the lord of lycht, and lamp of day."

"Dame naturis menstralis."

"Woddis, forrestis, with nakyt bewis blowt, Stude strippyt of thar weid in every howt. So bustuusly Boreas his bugill blew, The deyr full dern doun in the dalis drew; Smale byrdis, flokkand throu thik ronys thrang, In chyrmyng and with cheping changit thar sang, Sekand hidlis and hyrnys thame to hyde Fra feirfull thuddis of the tempestuus tyde."

"Ryveris ran reid on spait with watir broune, And burnys hurlys all thar bankis doune."

"It is richt facil and eith gait, I the tell, Forto discend and pas on down to hell: The blak gettis of Pluto, and that dirk way, Standis evir oppin and patent nycht and day; Bot tharfra to return agane on hyght, And heir abufe recovir this aris licht, That is difficil wark, thar lawbour lyis."

"The battellis and the man I will discriue, Fra Troyis boundis first that fugitiue By fate to Italie come and coist lauyne, Ouer land and se cachit with meikill pyne By force of goddis aboue fra euery stede Of cruel luno throw auld remembrit feid: Grete payne in batelles sufferit he also, Or he his goddis brocht in Latio And belt the ciete, fra quham of nobil fame The latyne peopill taken has thare name, And eke the faderis, princis of Alba, Come, and the walleris of grete Rome alsua."

"Bot a sentens to follow may suffice me: Sum tyme I follow the text als neir I may, Sum tyme I am constrenyt ane other way."

"Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis nos esse quasi nanos gigantum humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvehimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea"

"Lex donum Dei est, æquitatis forma, norma justitiæ, divinæ voluntatis imago, salutis custodia, unio et consolidatio populorum, regula officiorum, exclusio et exterminatio vitiorum, violentiæ et totius injuriæ pœna."

"Et pro virtutum habitu quilibet et liber est, et, quatenus est liber, eatenus virtutibus pollet."

"Exquisita lectio singulorum, doctissimum; cauta electio meliorum, optimum facit."

"Est ergo tyranni et principis hæc differentia sola, quod hic legi obtemperat, et ejus arbitrio populum regit, cujus se credit ministrum."

"Representative authorities relying considerably on the Metalogicon include: Friedrich Ueberweg, Heinrich Ritter, Barthelemy Haureau, Francois Picavet, Martin Grabmann, Etienne Gilson, Maurice de Wulf, and Karl Prantl in the history of philosophy; James Mark Baldwin and George S. Brettin the history of psychology; and Leon Maitre, Augusta Drane,Jules Alexandre Clerval, Hastings Rashdall, G. Robert, Charles S.Baldwin, Bigerius Thorlacius, Reginald Lane Poole, Bishop William Stubbs, J. E. Sandys, G. Pare, A. Brunet, and P. Tremblay, Eduard Norden, F. A. Wright, Charles Homer Haskins, and T. A. Sinclair in the history of education and learning."

"He learnt to write what is regarded by competent critics as the purest Latin of the middle ages…The breadth of his reading in the Latin classics is astonishing."

"He would be a scholar in any age, and was head and shoulders above his own."

"Faith is, indeed, most necessary in human affairs, as well as in religion Without faith, no contracts could be concluded, nor could any business be transacted. And without faith, where would be the basis for the divine reward of human merit? As it is, that faith which embraces the truths of religion deserves reward. Such faith is, according to the Apostle, "a substantiation of things to be hoped for, a testimonial to things that appear not." Faith is intermediate between opinion and science."

"To say that a thing "wholly pertains" to something else, or "does not pertain to it in any way," and that something "is predicated in a universal way" of something else, or "is completely alien to it" amount to the same thing. Nevertheless, while one form of expression is [now] in frequent use, the other has become practically obsolete, except so far as it may occasionally be admitted through mutual agreement. In Aristotle's day it was perhaps customary to use both of these forms of expression, but now one has replaced the other [simply] because usage has so decreed."

"These Peripatetics accordingly made careful investigations into the nature of all things, so as to determine which I should be avoided as evil, discounted as useless, sought after as good,or preferred as better, and finally which are called "good" or "bad" according to circumstances. There thus developed two branches of philosophy, natural and moral, which are also called ethics and physics. But, through lack of scientific skill in argumentative reasoning, many absurdities were concluded. Thus Epicurus would have the world originate from atoms and a void, and would dispense with God as its author; whereas the Stoics asserted that matter is coeternal with God, and held that all sins are equally grave."

"È innanzitutto certo che in tutta la Sacra Scrittura non si troverà mai traccia della Chiesa attuale intesa come una società invisibile; ne esporrò qui, con la massima fedeltà, le ragioni. Gesù Cristo, nostro Redentore e Maestro, per ogni difficoltà o dissenso – sia di dottrina che di morale – ci rimanda sempre alla santa Chiesa per ottenerne l’infallibile soluzione. San Paolo insegna a Timoteo come i cristiani debbano vivere concretamente nella Chiesa. Egli stesso fece convocare gli anziani della chiesa asiatica, mostrando loro come fossero stati costituiti dallo Spirito Santo per reggere la Chiesa. Egli stesso, infine, fu inviato dalla Chiesa insieme a San Barnaba Egli stesso fu inviato dalla Chiesa insieme a San Barnaba e da quelle stesse chiese fu ricevuto per confermarle e per ordinarvi i sacri pastori, i vescovi e i sacerdoti. Ora, come si potrebbe riferire tutto questo a una Chiesa invisibile e immaginaria? E dove mai avrebbe potuto trovare una simile chiesa per presentarvi ricorsi giudiziari, per viverci e per governarla?"

"De quoi sert-il de bastir des chasteaux en Espagne puisqu’il faut habiter en France?"

"A heart-memory is better than a mere head-memory. Better to carry away a little of the love of Christ in our souls, than if we were able to repeat every word of every sermon we ever heard."

"Have patience with every one, but especially with yourself."

"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working ; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves."

"There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love—every man works his oar voluntarily!"

"Ceux-là qui aiment à se faire craindre, craignent de se faire aimer, et eux-mêmes craignent plus que tous les autres; car les autres ne craignent qu'eux, mais eux craignent tous les autres."