Robert Hugh Benson

"Well, what they call the Incarnation is really the point. Everything else flows from that. And, once a man believes that, I must confess that all the rest follows—even down to scapulars and holy water." "Mr. Francis, I don’t understand a word you’re saying." He smiled indulgently. "Of course not," he said; "it is all incredible nonsense. But, you know, I did really believe it all once." "But it’s unreasonable," she said. He made a little demurring sound. "Yes," he said, "in one sense, of course it is—utterly unreasonable. But in another sense——"

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"A great deal depends on the temper of the court. Facts depend for their interpretation upon the point of view."

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

"It is a good deal more fashionable, and considered a great deal more 'spiritual,' to stand outside creeds and churches than within them."

"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.'"

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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 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.'"

"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."

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

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

"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."

"Real love...is a continual emptying and slaying of self, a continual immolation of self on the altar of the beloved. ... It is exactly this that distinguishes it from its caricature—its antichrist—from lust or liking. Lust and liking desire to acquire and to win; love to be acquired and to be won."

"While friendship itself has an air of eternity about it, seeming to transcend all natural limits, there is hardly any emotion so utterly at the mercy of time. We form friendships, and grow out of them. It might almost be said that we cannot retain the faculty of friendship unless we are continually making new friends."

"There is no obstinacy like religious obstinacy; for the spiritual man encourages himself in his wrong course, by a conviction that he is following Divine guidance."

"Conscience illuminated by the Presence of Jesus Christ in the heart must be the guide of every man."

"Humility, obedience, simplicity — these are the virtues on which the Divine Friendship, as well as mere human friendships, alone can thrive."

"Charity, it has been said, is the pardoning of the unpardonable and the loving of the unlovable."

"In Christ’s Name, let us begin. For Christ has finished."

"A broken heart and God's will done would be better than that God's will should be avoided and her own satisfied."

"For where men have made the earth that is trodden underfoot, and have largely veiled the heavens themselves, it is but natural that they should think that they have made everything, and that it is they who rule it."

"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."

"Men must have facts first and explanations afterwards."

"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.""

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

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

"It seems to me probable that any one who has a series of intolerable positions to put up with must have been responsible for them to some extent:—not that it was simply 'their fault'—I don’t mean that—but that they contributed to it by un-patience, or intolerance, or brusqueness—or some provocation."

"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."

"Great One in Three, of Whom are named All families in earth and heaven, Hear us, who have Thy promise claimed, And let a wealth of grace be given; Grant them in life and death to be Each knit to each, and both to Thee."

"The individual saves his life by losing it, and realises the meaning of his own identity only by merging it in the commonwealth."

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

"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."