We are American at puberty. We die French.

The trouble with modern education is you never know how ignorant they are.

...she had regained what I thought she had lost forever, the magical sadness which had drawn me to her, the thwarted look that had seemed to say, "Surely I was made for some other purpose than this?

If it could only be like this always - always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe and Aloysius in a good temper.

O God, if there is a God, forgive him his sins, if there is such a thing as sin.

Its theme-- the operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters-- was perhaps presumptuously large, but I make no apology for it.

The worse I am, the more I need God. I can't shut myself out from His mercy. That is what it would mean; starting a life with you, without Him. Julia to Charles