In a very real sense, all we need to know is that God knows all.

Sometimes we are so busy being the hammer or the anvil, that we forget who really needs the shaping.

It is so easy to be confrontive without being informative; indignant without being intelligent; impulsive without being insightful.

If we knew how often the obedience of others is affected by our own, and how often our stepping forth soon brings forth a whole platton of helpers, and how often our speaking forth soon creates a chorus - we would be even more ashamed of our slackess and our silence.

It is better to trust and sometimes be disappointed than to be forever mistrusting and be right occasionally.

Sir Thomas More was a victim of injustice and irony. Generously and meekly, just as he was about to be martyred, he said: Paul . . . was present, and consented to the death of St. Stephen, and kept their clothes that stoned him to death, and yet be they [Stephen and Paul] now both twain Holy Saints in heaven, and shall continue there friends for ever, so I verily trust and . . . pray, that though your lordships have now here in earth been judges to my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together, to our everlasting salvation.

Real hope is much more than wishful musing. It stiffens, not slackens, the spiritual spine.