The Christian idea of 'putting on Christ' is the whole of Christianity.

The true reader reads every work seriously in the sense that he reads it whole-heartedly, makes himself as receptive as he can. But for that very reason he cannot possibly read every work solemly or gravely. For he will read 'in the same spirit that the author writ.'... He will never commit the error of trying to munch whipped cream as if it were venison.

When he was a young man he prayed constantly for chastity; but years later he realized that while his lips had been saying 'Oh Lord, make me chaste,' his heart had been secretly adding, 'But please don't do it just yet.

And the seriousness with which the other party takes my words always raises the doubt whether I have taken them seriously enough myself.

It is in their 'good' characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self- revelations.

A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it.

The moment good taste knows itself, some of its goodness is lost.