All the tragedies which we can imagine return in the end to the one and only tragedy: the passage of time.

Education-whether its object be children or adults, individuals or an entire people-consists in creating motives.

Whoever is uprooted himself uproots others. Whoever is rooted himself doesn't uproot others.

The world is the closed door. It is a barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.

Christians ought to suspect that affliction is the very essence of creation. To be a created thing is not necessarily to be afflicted, but it is necessarily to be exposed to affliction. ... Affliction is the surest sign that God wishes to be loved by us; it is the most precious evidence of His tenderness.

Beauty captivates the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass right through to the soul. . . . When the feeling for beauty happens to be associated with the sight of some human being, the transference of love is made possible, at any rate in an illusory manner. But it is all the beauty of the world, it is universal beauty, for which we yearn.

I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.