It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one's adult enjoyment of what are called 'children's books.' I think the convention a silly one. No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty-except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all. A mature palate will probably not much care for crème de menthe: but it ought still to enjoy bread and butter and honey.

Everything except God has some natural superior; everything except unformed matter has some natural inferior.

One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up.

If the universe is so bad...how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?

Music. A meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience.

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that-and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison-you do not know God at all.

I sometimes pray not for self-knowledge in general but for just so much self knowledge at the moment as I can bear and use at the moment; the little daily dose.