I know few Christians so convinced of the splendor of the rooms in their Father's house, as to be happier when their friends are called to those mansions... Nor has the Church's ardent "desire to depart, and be with Christ," ever cured it of the singular habit of putting on mourning for every person summoned to such departure.

Not without design does God write the music of our lives.

Absolute ugliness is admitted as rarely as perfect beauty; but degrees of it more or less distinct are associated with whatever has the nature of death and sin, just as beauty is associated with what has the nature of virtue and of life.

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

You can only possess beauty through understanding it.

No architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.