I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers.

When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?

Changing husbands is only changing troubles.

It's all so beautiful . . . the spring . . . and books and music and fires. . . . Why aren't they enough?

Acedia is a danger to anyone whose work requires great concentration and discipline yet is considered by many to be of little practical value. The world doesn't care if I write another word, and if I am to care, I have to summon all my interior motivation and strength.

Over and over again mediocrity is promoted because real worth isn't to be found.

But hope has an astonishing resilience and strength. Its very persistence in our hearts indicates that it is not a tonic for wishful thinkers but the ground on which realists stand.