Religion indeed enlightens, terrifies, subdues; it gives faith, it inflicts remorse, it inspires resolutions, it draws tears, it inflames devotion, but only for the occasion.

To discover and to teach are distinct functions; they are also distinct gifts, and are not commonly found united in the same person.

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.

I toast the Pope, but I toast conscience first.

There are wounds of the spirit which never close and are intended in God's mercy to bring us nearer to Him, and to prevent us leaving Him by their very perpetuity. Such wounds then may almost be taken as a pledge, or at least as a ground for a humble trust, that God will give us the great gift of perseverance to the end. This is how I comfort myself in my own great bereavements.

Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his.

To take up the cross of Christ is no great action done once for all; it consists in the continual practice of small duties which are distasteful to us.