Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves only by Jesus Christ. We know life and death only through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know what is our life, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves.

Who can doubt that we exist only to love? Disguise it, in fact, as we will, we love without intermission... We live not a moment exempt from its influence.

The Fall is an offense to human reason, but once accepted, it makes perfect sense of the human condition.

Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first.

Those who are clever in imagination are far more pleased with themselves than prudent men could reasonably be.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Man is so great that his greatness appears even in the consciousness of his misery. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is true that it is misery indeed to know one's self to be miserable; but then it is greatness also. In this way, all man's miseries go to prove his greatness. They are the miseries of a mighty potentate, of a dethroned monarch.