Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. But that made no difference to what he had to do.

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it.

Our struggle is--isn't it?--to achieve and retain faith on a lower level. To believe that there is a Listener at all. For as the situation grows more and more desperate, the grisly fears intrude. Are we only talking to ourselves in an empty universe? The silence is often so emphatic. And we have prayed so much already

the sweet heavy smell grew very much less. For though the whole fire had not been put out, a good bit of it had, and what remained smelled very largely of burnt Marsh-wiggle, which is not at all an enchanting smell.

Many people think their prayers are never answered because it is the answered ones they forget.

What one must not do is to rule out the supernatural as the one impossible explanation.

The hard sayings of our Lord are wholesome to those only who find them hard.