Catholics From England

"Another consideration, of no little weight with an absolute sovereign, augmented his leaning in favour of Catholics. He knew them to be loyal from principle, and he was glad to have their support against the Puritan devils by whom he declared that his mother and himself had been haunted from their cradles. His experience of government in Scotland had nourished the belief that where there was no bishop there would be no King, and he made no secret of his persuasion that the hierarchy was the firmest support of the throne."

"The object of the present Lecture is to set forth and explain the true principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, by the knowledge of which you may be enabled to test architectural excellence. The two great rules for design are these: 1st, that there should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction, or propriety; 2nd, that all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building."

"Pugin was only just middle height but very strong, broad chest, large hands, massive forehead, nose and chin, well curved flexible mouth, and restless grey eyes, the expression of which turned inwards when in deep thought. His hair was darkest brown, thick, not crisp, and he shaved clean like a sailor. All his movements were rapid, full of mental and bodily energy, shewing a nervous and choleric temperament. His sight was 'like a hawk's"; he never used or needed glasses either in making sketches from clerestory stained glass or working minutely, and most of his early designs were on a very fine scale, probably from having etched much"

"His memory was the marvel of all who knew him for long; the mind seemed to receive its impressions without a particle of mist or shadow, keen, definite and lasting, to be recalled at will unchanged. He was thorough and earnest in doing all he undertook with all his might, and not resting till it was accomplished. He was passionate, but believed his anger was always another's fault, honest rages with no malice in them, blowing over without leaving resentment."

"St. George's was not high enough for want of money? But was it want of money that made you put that blunt, overloaded, laborious ogee door into the side of it? Was it for lack of funds that you sunk the tracery of the parapet in its clumsy zigzags? Was it in parsimony that you buried its paltry pinnacles in that eruption of diseased crockets? or in pecuniary embarrassment that you set up the belfry foolscaps, with the mimicry of dormer windows, which nobody can ever reach nor look out of? Not so, but in mere incapability of better things."

"There is nothing worth living for but Christian Architecture and a boat."

"I am so anxious to introduce a sensible style of furniture of good oak and constructively put together that shall compete with the vile trash made and sold. These things are very simple and I am certain with a little patience can be made to pay."

"The new Cheadle Church, which is to be consecrated on Sept I, is the most splendid building I ever saw. It is coloured inside every inch in the most sumptuous way—showing how Gothic, and in these countries where there is no marble, contrived to make up for the mosaics, etc of the south. The windows are all beautifully stained. The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament is, on entering, a blaze of light—and I could not help saying to myself "Porta Coeli"."

"[I have] seen the fallacy of the new sects and trust ere long I shall be united in the original and apostolick church which suffers no change or variation. I trust no man will attribute my motives solely to my love for antient architecture for although I will allow the change has been brought about in me owing to my studies of antient art yet I have still higher reasons."

"… He moves from personal to literary history with muscular seamlessness (much as he did in the earlier books). We leap from Melville to Robert Louis Stevenson to the inevitable Byron; from Elizabeth Barrett Browning – “ in ” – to Sylvia Plath to Virginia Woolf. There are passages about Oscar Wilde and , both of whom Hoare addressed in earlier, rather lighter-hearted biographies. There’s some lovely stuff on Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen – “he looks like a boy you knew at school”. … … RisingTideFallingStar is about the author’s relationship to the sea, but then that could be said about both Leviathan and The Sea Inside. What changes with each subsequent book is that the authorial gaze becomes increasingly inward and self-revealing, the tone more forlorn, until some passages in RisingTideFallingStar attain an almost posthumous air, as if the book might also serve as a suicide note."

"This fascination with the whale, like ’s report from Southampton Water, was an expression of Victorian fashion, a characteristic marriage of ingenious science and human curiosity. In England, live whales were delivered to aquaria in and (although one show was closed, for fear the flagrant activities of its performers should offend genteel dispositions), and in September 1877 a arrived in , in the centre of the world's greatest city."

"Physical certainty is not to be attained when we have to traverse the vast distances of celestial space, and human infirmity must be content to recognise the boundary beyond which it may not pass, the limit imposed on finite minds by the Infinite."

"Behind me, bare s and es lie as cracks against the sky, evoking a peculiarly English landscape. In the late eighteenth century, drew the abbey's ruins in his sketchbook, tracing out the trees that had grown up around the crumbling gothic arches. In 1816 stayed at on his honeymoon, and painted its scudding clouds and billowing scenery. Theirs were records of a Romantic setting, an alternative reality of sensation and emotion. Hanging over the shore, the gnarled, enamelled branches are made darker by the reflected light of the sea and the stretch of bright shingle,"

"Hoare's Leviathan is part natural history, part literary criticism, part economics and part memoir but at its heart is the author's lifelong obsession for all things whale. ... He traces his love of whales to reading Moby-Dick and vividly recalls his first actual encounter with a at . Hoare now frequently travels to as a volunteer on a identification programme."

"His appointment as abbot may have been an excellent thing for the monastery, but it cannot be denied that it was a great misfortune for science."

"It is for the Catholic apologist to prove in detail that, however deep and far-reaching the significance attributed by the Evangelists to the facts which they relate, those facts cannot simply be resolved into myth and legend. Nature also is a parable; but it is real."

"The work of collation is necessarily long and tedious. It requires great care and minute observation since nothing is too small to be passed over for the most insignificant thing may be found to throw light on a problem or help to identify a manuscript."

"His gentleness and tact disarmed all opponents."

"Bishop Grimes held his office for twenty-seven years, during which period he made frequent visitations throughout his enormous diocese, which included some of the roughest country in New Zealand. He was indefatigable as an organiser, and was primarily responsible for the great number of Roman Catholic institutions which were established under efficient management during his long term as Bishop. He gained, and held to the end, the love and respect of his people, and has left, in the Cathedral, a lasting memorial of a singularly active life."

"Meum est propositum in taberna mori: Vinum sit appositum morientis ori, Ut dicant cum venerint angelorum chori, Deus sit propitius huic potatori! Poculis accenditur animi lucerna; Cor imbutum nectare volat ad superna: Mihi sapit dulcius vinum in taberna, Quam quod aqua miscuit præsulis pincerna."

"Numquam enim audiendi quod aliquis monachus super puerum incubuisset, quin statim post ipsum surrexisset puer."

"The Cistercians...are wholly strange to the use of flesh. Yet they keep pigs to the number of many thousands, and sell the bacon—though perhaps not quite all of it. The heads, legs and feet they neither give away, throw away, nor sell. What becomes of them God knows."

"Vadis quo uis, morieris ubi debes."

"The hatred which is the degenerate product of love is the stubbornest."

"Dura est manus cirurgi, sed sanans."

"Hoc solum deliqui, quod uiuo."

"Eve, smiling, plucked the apple, then Laughed, sighed—and tasted it again: "Strange such a pleasant, juicy thing On a forbidden tree should spring!"But had she seen with clearer eyes, Or had the serpent been less wise, She'd scarce have shown such little wit As to let Adam taste of it!"

"If, sir, I possessed, as you suggest, the power of conveying unlimited sexual attraction through the potency of my voice, I would not be reduced to accepting a miserable pittance from the BBC for interviewing a faded female in a damp basement."

"The White Disguise God wears among us, littling Himself to us, that the soul may not lack that which the body needs — food: that no one may be alone, in life, or in the narrow pass between life-partial and life-complete."

"Before he could go to New York he had to get a U.S. visa at the American consulate in Toronto. He was called upon to fill in a long form with many questions, including "Is it your intention to overthrow the Government of the United States by force?" By the time Harding got to that one he was so irritated that he answered: "Sole purpose of visit.""

"The Pope is barely Catholic enough for some converts."

"When the men of Israel bowed in helplessness before Pharaoh, two women spurned his edicts and refused his behests. A father made no effort to save the infant Moses, but a mother's care hid him while concealment was possible, and a sister watched over his preservation when exposed on the river's brink. To woman was intrusted the charge of providing for the perils and the wants of the wilderness; and in the hour of triumph, woman's voice was loudest in the acclaim of joy that ascended to Heaven from an emancipated nation."

"It is easier to understand how a schism continues than how it began. Schisms are easily made; they are enormously difficult to heal. The religious instinct is always conservative; there is always a strong tendency to continue the existing state of things. At first the schismatics were reckless innovators; then with the lapse of centuries their cause seems to be the old one; it is the Faith of the Fathers."

"This institution... with rules and constitutions under the authority of the Holy See, has for its special object the domestic and industrial training of girls (chiefly of the working class) with the view to promote peace and happiness in families, in union with and in imitation of the Holy Family of Nazareth."

"We love our neighbour because of the image of God in them, and as able to be our associates in beatitude. Sinners and our enemies therefore may not be excluded from this common love, or from the ordinary exterior marks of it, and we must be prepared to show them more special love when necessary."

"A characteristic note of Iranian religious philosophy is its essential optimism; if there is human sin, there is also repentance and expiation."

"Vaughan was an eloquent preacher and lecturer, and acquired a high literary reputation by his elaborate work."

"The recommendations of the youth illustrate their maturity and an example of the influence they can have on other Youth, Church and Society."

"The witness of his life will remain in memory. Bishop Davies was committed to ensuring that his legacy remained and continued serving and responding to the poor and those in urgent need."

"He was indefatigable in spite of the strain on a constitution never strong. He proved a capable administrator, fighting energetically for Catholic interests, especially those of primary education, which he provided for by the foundation of Catholic schools. He also took great interest in the completion of his cathedral which he lived to open. He was a man of great holiness, and so far as possible continued even when archbishop to lead the life of a simple monk."

"During his long life he has seen the Church in New Zealand develop from a few scattered families-the mustard seed of the Gospel-to the rich and vigorous growth of the present day."

"I wasn't a clerical sort of priest. For me it was about being involved with the people. I like people, they're made in the image and likeness of God! It's about encouraging them to fulfil themselves by helping them meet God and helping them get to know him."

"We need to be absolutely certain and convicted of this truth that everybody that we meet in our daily lives wants to know about the truth of God that He has revealed to us. It's not always obvious."

"Fiat justitia et ruant coeli."

"Catholic solidarity should continue supporting the long-term commitment of the Church in Africa to raise awareness, to accompany the infected and the affected, to form the youth, and to face this great challenge."

"Faith in God and the rootedness of our culture in its Christian and its Judeo-Christian heritage; faith in God is a huge asset, it's not a problem and what we must not do is begin to think that this extremism is the product of religious faith; it's a distortion, it's a corruption."

"Erratum. In my article on the price of milk, 'horses' should have read 'cows' throughout."

"Rush hour: that hour when traffic is almost at a standstill."

"Mr. Justice Cocklecarrot began the hearing of a very curious case yesterday. A Mrs. Tasker is accused of continually ringing the doorbell of a Mrs. Renton, and then, when the door is opened, pushing a dozen red-bearded dwarfs into the hall and leaving them there."

"One disadvantage of being a hog is that at any moment some blundering fool may try to make a silk purse out of your wife's ear."