Just as a person who is always asserting that he is too good-natured is the very one from whom to expect, on some occasion, the coldest and most unconcerned cruelty, so when any group sees itself as the bearer of civilization this very belief will betray it into behaving barbarously at the first opportunity.

Everything which originates from pure love is lit with the radiance of beauty.

If it were conceivable that in obeying God one should bring about one's own damnation whilst in disobeying him one could be saved, I should still choose the way of obedience.

One cannot imagine St. Francis of Assisi talking about rights.

I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.

Prayer consists simply in giving to God all the careful attention of which the soul is capable.

The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded upon the spirituality of work.