Generosity is also an act of freedom, a casting off of the constraints of prudence and self-interest.

I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music.

I want to feel that art is an utterance made in good faith by one human being to another.

There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding. ... If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace.

Rejoice with those who rejoice." I have found that difficult too often. I was much better at weeping with those who weep.

This morning the world by moonlight seemed to be an immemorial acquaintance I had always meant to befriend. If there was ever a chance, it had passed. Strange to say, I feel a little that way about myself.

I really don't know why people have so much trouble now writing about religious faith. It is true that clichés can override more interesting impulses. But the desire to find meaning, to be generous, to live well in an ethical and spiritual sense, is so widespread that it should not seem alien to people when it is expressed in the terms of traditional religion.