but who can feel ugly, when their heart feels joy

The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing than worshipping ... 'Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god.

Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.

The holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him.

And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

'Useful,' and 'necessity' was always 'the tyrant's plea'.

I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now... Come further up, come further in!