The virtue of some people consists wholly in condemning the vices in others.

Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, & John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535 We sometimes come to God, not because we love Him best, but because we love our possessions best; we ask Christ to "save Western civilization", without asking ourselves whether it is entirely a civilization that Christ could want to save. We pray, too often, not to do God's will, but to enlist God's assistance in maintaining our "continually increasing consumption". And yet, though Christ promised that God would feed us, he never promised that God would stuff us to bursting.

Feast of Benedict of Nursia, Father of Western Monasticism, c.550 Continuing a short series on education: We demand, as [St. Paul] did, that the candidate must be of good moral character -- at least, so far as that he can produce testimonials to his good conduct. We demand, as the apostle demanded, that he must hold fast the faithful word -- at least, so far as that he shall not write deliberate heresy in his examination papers, and shall profess belief in the Creed. We demand, as he demanded, that the candidate must be apt to teach -- at least, so far as an examination of his verbal memory can prove that he knows what he ought to teach. But there is some difference between the "without reproach" of the apostle and our testimonials; and there is a difference between the holding fast of the faith by a man tried in the furnace of life, and the soundness in the faith of a youth fresh from a theological school; and the aptness to teach of a man of experience and social authority is not quite the same thing as the aptness to teach of a young man who has just passed an examination in the subject-matter.

so let it be written--so let it be done.

The most delightful pleasures cloy without variety.

I quote others only in order the better to express myself. •Michel De Montaigne Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. •Jean Rostand I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else. Your completeness must be understood by you and experienced in your thoughts as your own personal reality.

I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate. -Chuang Tzu.

I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.

To have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact, talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you.

I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open? -Seneca.

People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.

Never make a defence or apology before you be accused.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

Labor disgraces no man, but occasionally men disgrace labor.

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.

Faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith.

In God, we live every commonplace as well as the most exalted moment of our being. To trust in Him when no need is pressing, when things seem going right of themselves, may be harder than when things seem going wrong.

Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "0 Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.