Necessity may not be the opposite of freedom, and perhaps a man is most free when, instead of producing motives, he could only say, "I am what I do.

You can't go against the grain of the universe and not expect to get splinters.

When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.

We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it's there for emergencies but he hopes he'll never have to use it.

A spoiled saint, a Pharisee, an inquisitor, or a magician, makes better sport to Hell than a mere common tyrant or debauchee.

The proper good of a creature is to surrender itself to its Creator—to enact intellectually, volitionally, and emotionally, that relationship which is given in the mere fact of its being a creature. When it does so, it is good and happy.

The process of growing up is to be valued for what we gain, not for what we lose.