What is surprising is not that oppression should make its appearance only after higher forms of economy have been reached, but that it should always accompany them.

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

At the centre of the human heart is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.

Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.

When an apprentice gets hurt, or complains of being tired, the workmen and peasants have this fine expression: "It is the trade entering his body." Each time that we have some pain to go through, we can say to ourselves quite truly that it is the universe, the order and beauty of the world, and the obedience of God that are entering our body.

In what concerns divine things, belief is not appropriate. Only certainty will do. Anything less than certainty is unworthy of God.

Joy is being fully aware of reality.