Since art is a virtue of the intellect, it demands to communicate with the entire universe of the intellect. Hence it is that the normal climate of art is intelligence and knowledge: its normal soil, the civilized heritage of a consistent and integrated system of beliefs and values; its normal horizon , the infinity of human experience enlighted by the passionate insight of anguish or the intellectual virtues of a contemplative mind.

A single idea, if it is right, saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences.

God does not ask for 'religious' art or 'Catholic' art. The art he wants for himself is Art, with all its teeth

The sole philosophy open to those who doubt the possibility of truth is absolute silence -- even mental.

I don't see America as a mainland, but as a sea, a big ocean. Sometimes a storm arises, a formidable current develops, and it seems it will engulf everything. Wait a moment, another current will appear and bring the first one to naught.

Let us not go faster than God. It is our emptiness and our thirst that He needs, not our plentitude.

There is no question that the language of "felt thought" must be quarried from our personal depths. Like the best gold, it does not lie on the surface.