Can we actually suppose that we are wasting, polluting, and making ugly this beautiful land for the sake of patriotism and the love of God? Perhaps some of us would like to think so, but in fact this destruction is taking place because we have allowed ourselves to believe, and to live, a mated pair of economic lies: that nothing has a value that is not assigned to it by the market; and that the economic life of our communities can safely be handed over to the great corporations.

Some nights in the midst of this loneliness I swung among the scattered stars at the end of the thin thread of faith alone.

...I was a young man. I hardly knew what I knew, let alone what I was going to know.

But the only possible guarantee of the future is responsible behavior in the present.

To love anything good, at any cost, is a bargain.

A change of heart or of values without a practice is only another pointless luxury of a passively consumptive way of life.

Analogies have tied things together for me, personally. The fundamental one for me is the analogy between your relationship to your spouse and your relationship to your place. Both need to be a settled commitment and both involve continuous learning and adjusting.