Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

The plastic virtues: Purity, unity, and truth, keep nature in subjection.

This was Shakespeare's form; Who walked in every path of human life, Felt every passion; and to all mankind Doth now, will ever, that experience yield Which his own genius only could acquire.

And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone. -Coco Chanel.

The existence of any pure race with special endowments is a myth, as is the belief that there are races all of whose members are foredoomed to eternal inferiority.

The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art.

A poor report card has one good thing in its favor: at least you know the student is not cheating.

As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.

I'm going to laugh and jeer and wiggle my ears at your death throes... You can OD on religion or dope or war or toadburgers, for all I care.

Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945 Furthermore, [the unchristian environment] is the place where we find out whether the Christian's meditation has led him into the unreal, from which he awakens in terror when he returns to the workaday world, or whether it has led him into a real contact with God, from which he emerges strengthened and purified. Has it transported him for a moment into a spiritual ecstasy that vanishes when everyday life returns, or has it lodged the Word of God so securely and deeply in his heart that it holds and fortifies him, impelling him to active love, to obedience, to good works? Only the day can decide.

He who fails to prepare, prepares to fail.

Wherever you are - be all there.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will-he will be sure to repent it.

Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230 Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963 I too had noticed that our prayers for others flow more easily than those we offer on our own behalf. And it would be nice to accept your view that this just shows we are made to live by charity. I'm afraid, however, I detect two much less attractive reasons for the ease of my own intercessory prayers. One is that I am often, I believe, praying for others when I should be doing things for them. It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see him. And the other is like unto it. Suppose I pray that you may be given grace to withstand your besetting sin (short list of candidates for this post will be forwarded on demand). Well, all the work has to be done by God and you. If I pray against my own besetting sin there will be work for me. One sometimes fights shy of admitting an act to be a sin for this very reason.

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow.

The only way of setting the will free is to deliver it from wilfulness.

There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.

Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274 God usually answers our prayers so much more according to the measure of His own magnificence, than of our asking, that we do not recognize His benefits to be those for which we sought Him.