"The real and only satisfactory motive for submission does not lie in superficial things, but in the deep, still current of faith that comes from God direct, and bears the soul along."

"Growth means the unfolding of interior capacities through the assimilation of external substances."

"It is strange, sometimes, to find that some silent old lady has a power for sounding human character, which far shrewder persons lack."

"One can do no more than gather the straws that float on the surface, and try to trace the course and meaning of their movements."

"To assimilate blindfold will sooner or later end in poisoning."

"Individuals cannot cohere closely unless they sacrifice something of their individuality."

"The Church, like her Master and His ordinances, must have an earthly as well as a divine nature, if she is to do His work."

"We all win from God exactly what we deserve. We all get from God exactly what we really want of Him."

"She has been taught to hold herself in, and not to show her feelings; and that, I think, is as much a drawback sometimes as wearing the heart upon the sleeve."

"Man’s highest life does not consist in self-expression, but in self-sacrifice."

"If a soul lives long enough on the plane of sensuality or of ambition, she finds that Christ is worth less than nothing there."

"Each soul is as great as the world, and in each soul there is room for all the tragedies of the world to be re-enacted, as every puddle is great enough to hold the sun."

"Remorse is easy enough, but repentance means love; and a soul that has lost her Lover has lost her own power of loving."

"To each soul Christ comes, all trusting as a friend, and in each soul He is betrayed over and over again."

"The moment a soul recognises that there may be a Joy in Pain which is absent from Pleasure, she has taken the first step towards the practical solution of the Problem of Pain."

"The Cross is the symbol of absolutely endless expansion; it is never content; it points for ever and ever to four indefinitely receding points."

"Competition, founded upon the conflicting interests of individuals, is in reality far less productive of wealth and enterprise than co-operation, involving though it does the constant apparent sacrifice of the individual to the common interests."

"Divine Truth always must be extreme—it must, so to speak, always overlap at both ends, just because it is Divine, and therefore much too big for this world."

"The man who says, 'Unless I feel, I will not believe,' is as narrow and foolish as the man who says, 'Unless I understand, I will not believe.'"

"He pictured the peace of the ransomed soul, that knows itself safe in the arms of God; that rejoices, even in this world, in the Light of His Face and the ecstasy of His embrace; that dwells by waters of comfort and lies down in the green pastures of the Heavenly Love; while, round this little island of salvation in an ocean of terror, the thunders of wrath sound only as the noise of surge on a far-off reef."

"Since God is approaching man, it is not a degradation, but a triumph of His love, that He should come so far down to meet him."

"Complacency is the one obstacle to progress, in finance, in art, in intellect, and in the things of the spirit."

"Just as in social things the essential bourgeois is one who, being tolerably well off, is completely complacent with his position—unlike the lowest class which has no position to be complacent about, and the highest class which does not think about it at all either way; so in matters of mind. 'How hardly shall they who trust in riches,' says our Lord, 'enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.'"

"Real love seeks not to possess, but to be possessed; not, so to speak, to devour the beloved, to satisfy self with the beloved, but the exact contrary—to be devoured and to satisfy."

"To-day as in Bethlehem, the bourgeois sits at home and discusses the Census, while Shepherds and Kings adore in the Stable."

"If God be Truth, and God be Love, is it not absolutely inevitable that the Love of God should bring the Truth of God down to the level of the very simplest?"

"The whole of Nature exists on the principle of vicarious suffering; and to reject Christianity because of the doctrine of the Atonement is to reject Nature itself on the same account."

"Religion...must at least touch the will; for however small our will may be, it is always large enough to be united to the Will of God."

"The State can only give for economic reasons, however conscientious and individually charitable statesmen may be; while the Church gives for the Love of God, and the Love of God never yet destroyed any man's self-respect."

"The Socialist saw plainly the rights of the Society; the Anarchist saw the rights of the Individual. How therefore were these to be reconciled? The Church stepped in at that crucial point and answered, By the Family — whether domestic or religious. For in the Family you have both claims recognized: there is authority and yet there is liberty. For the union of the Family lies in Love; and Love is the only reconciliation of authority and liberty."

"Remember human nature, Monsignor. After all, it was only intense self-importance that used to make men say that they were independent of exterior beauty. It's far more natural and simple to like beauty. Every child does, after all."

"You see, when competition ceases, effort ceases. Human nature is human nature, after all. The Socialists forgot that."

"But ah, dear Saviour, human-wise, I yearn to pierce all mysteries, To catch Thine Hands, and see Thine Eyes When evening sounds begin. There, in Thy white Robe, Thou wilt wait At dusk beside some orchard gate, And smile to see me come so late, And, smiling, call me in."

"Religion always is and always has been at the root of every world-movement."

"So long as there is Sin in the world, so long must there be Penance."

"There is no such thing, of course, really as Irreligion — except by a purely conventional use of the word: the 'irreligious' man is one who has made up his mind either that there is no future world, or that it is so remote, as regards effectivity, as to have no bearing upon this. And that is a religion — at least it is a dogmatic creed — as much as any other."

"Honors and privileges are worth nothing if every one has them. If we all wore crowns, the kings would go bareheaded."

"The tragedy of a child over a broken doll is not less poignant than the anguish of a worshipper over a broken idol, or of a king over a ruined realm."

"Nothing is so bad as not trusting God."

"Those who most confidently appeal to Reason are usually the very persons most controlled by Imagination."

"It is scarcely likely that men on fire with success, whether military or commercial, will be patient of the restraints of religion."

"Philosophers tell us that the value of existence lies not in the objects perceived, but in the powers of perception."

"Men are once more acting along the lines which are, after all, those sanctioned by our Blessed Lord Himself in the words, "By their fruits you shall know them.""

"You can love a person deeply and sincerely whom you do not like. You can like a person passionately whom you do not love."

"Man must have liberty — he was made for it; but what liberty would that be which he has not learned to use?"

"In these days, when there is so much enterprise, money has become, as it were, a living thing that grows; or at the least a tool that can be used."

"Robin felt a strange thrill of glory at the thought that he bore with him, in virtue of his priesthood only, so much consolation. He faced for the first time that tremendous call of which he had heard so much in Rheims—that desolate cry of souls that longed and longed in vain for those gifts which a priest of Christ could alone bestow."

"The sense of home-coming was stronger than all else — that strange passion for a particular set of inanimate things — or, at the most, for an association of ideas — that has no parallel in human emotions."

"Democracy doesn't give the Average Man any real power at all. It swamps him among, under his friends — that is to say, it kills his individuality; and his individuality is the one thing he has which is worth anything."