Faith given back to us after a night of doubt is a stronger thing, and far more valuable to us than faith that has never been tested.

In a world where thrushes sing and willow trees are golden in the spring, boredom should have been included among the seven deadly sins.

What is the scent of water?" "Renewal. The goodness of God coming down like dew.

Jean was visited by one of her rare moments of happiness, one of those moments when the goodness of God was so real to her that it was like taste and scent; the rough strong taste of honey in the comb and the scent of water. Her thoughts of God had a homeliness that at times seemed shocking, in spite of their power, which could rescue her from terror or evil with an ease that astonished her.

In times of storm and tempest, of indecision and desolation, a book already known and loved makes better reading than something new and untried ... nothing is so warming and companionable.

There's much that goes to the makin' of a man or woman into somethin' better than a brute beast, but there's three things in chief, an' they're the places where life sets us down, an' the folks life knocks us up against, an' -- not the things ye get, but the things ye don't get.

All human beings have their otherness and it is that which cries out to the heart.