The Roman Catholic Church has the unique power of keeping remote control over human souls which have once been part of her. G.K. Chesterton has compared this to the fisherman's line, which allows the fish the illusion of free play in the water and yet has him by the hook; in his own time the fisherman by a 'twitch upon the thread' draws the fish to land.

I know very few young people, but it seems to me that they are all possessed with an almost fatal hunger for permanence.

Where can we hide in fair weather, we orphans of the storm?

"It is typical of Oxford," I said, "to start the new year in autumn."

No one is ever holy without suffering.

Dearest Charles-- I found a box of this paper at the back of a bureau so I must write to you as I am mourning for my lost innocence. It never looked like living. The doctors despaired of it from the start... I am never quite alone. Members of my family keep turning up and collecting luggage and going away again, but the white raspberries are ripe. I have a good mind not to take Aloysius to Venice. I don't want him to meet a lot of horrid Italian bears and pick up bad habits. Love or what you will. S.

Never get mixed up in a Welsh wrangle. It doesn't end in blows like an Irish one, but goes on forever.