We are not living in a world where all roads are radii if a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision.

We do not want to merely “see” beauty. We want to be united with it, to receive it into ourselves, to become part of it.

There is a difference between a private devotional life and a corporate one. Solemnity is proper in church, but things that are proper in church are not necessarily proper outside, and vice versa.

The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.

I felt in my bones that this universe does not explain itself.

You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ʿreligionʾ mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better.