The Catholic novelist in the South will see many distorted images of Christ, but he will certainly feel that a distorted image of Christ is better than no image at all. I think he will feel a good deal more kinship with backwoods prophets and shouting fundamentalists than he will with those politer elements for whom the supernatural is an embarrassment and for whom religion has become a department of sociology or culture or personality development.

If there is no possibility for change in a character, we have no interest in him.

Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violences which precede and follow them.

... the man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him.

...free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply.

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of the universe.