It is human misery and not pleasure which contains the secret of the divine wisdom.

The world is God's language to us.

Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love andjustice.

Punishment is a vital need of the human soul.

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.

Attentiveness is the heart of prayer.

When literature becomes deliberately indifferent to the opposition of good and evil it betrays its function and forfeits all claim to excellence.