If we only have the will to walk, then God is pleased with our stumbles.

For the Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work.

God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.

What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.

The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose.

You must not do, you must not even try to do, the will of the Father unless you are prepared to 'know of the doctrine'.