We stand, as it were, on the shore, and see multitudes of our fellow beings struggling in the water, stretching forth their arms, sinking, drowning, and we are powerless to assist them.

No one can fail to see that the power of the Church among large numbers in many communities is today diminishing, or has already ceased.

No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state

The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action.

It is written that the last enemy to be vanquished is death. We should begin early in life to vanquish this enemy by obliterating every trace of the fear of death from our minds. Then can we turn to life and fill the whole horizon of our souls with it, turn with added zest to all the serious tasks which it imposes and to the pure delights which here and there it affords.

Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.

The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.