Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.

To win true peace, a man needs to feel himself directed, pardoned, and sustained by a supreme power, to feel himself in the right road, at the point where God would have him be - in order with God and the universe. This faith gives strength and calm.

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.

If man was what he ought to be, he would be adored by the animals.

The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.

Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both.

Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.