I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality. . . asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me.

The assumption that things which have been conjured in the past will always be conjured in the guiding principle not of rational but of animal behavior.

We are afraid that Heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that the mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to. There are rewards that do not sully motives. A man's love for a woman is not mercenary because he wants to marry her, nor his love for poetry mercenary because he wants to read it, nor his love of exercise less disinterested because he wants to run and leap and walk. Love, by definition, seeks to enjoy its object.

Once when I had remarked on the affection quite often found between cat and dog, my friend replied, "Yes. But I bet no dog would ever confess it to the other dogs.

Regarding the debate about faith and works: It's like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most important.

The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can't supply is proof that Heaven must be our home.

Because we love something else more than this world, we love even this world more than those who know no other.