Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction.

Contemplating an object fixedly with the mind, asking myself, 'What is it?' without thinking of any other object or relating it to anything else for hours on end.

I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances.

We must prefer real hell to an imaginary paradise.

Justice consists in seeing that no harm is done to men. Whenever a man cries inwardly: 'Why am I being hurt?' harm is being done to him. He is often mistaken when he tries to define the harm, and why and by whom it is being inflicted on him. But the cry itself is infallible.

If there were no affliction in this world we might think we were in paradise.

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