Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.

when it rains, it pours.

Commemoration of Giles of Provence, Hermit, c.710 The purpose of religion -- at any rate, the Christian religion -- is not to get you into heaven, but to get heaven into you. ... Frederick Ward Kates September 2, 2000 Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942 The apostles were moved, not so much by an intellectual apprehension, as by a spiritual illumination. They met men, and the need of those men whom they met cried aloud to them. Their own desire for the revelation of the glory of Jesus in the salvation of men went out towards those whom they met, and was immediately answered by the recognition of the need of those whom they met for Jesus Christ. ... Roland Allen, Pentecost and the World ... Also see comments on this book in Bookworms September 3, 2000 Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604 The task is not, in essence, the securing of uniformity, or cooperation, or Church reunion, or any of the external forms, through which nevertheless the unity may be manifested. Within the wide bounds of the Christian Church there is abundant scope for the multiplicity of races, languages, and social conditions; room also for separate organizations with different traditions of faith and order, and much diversity of operation. But there is no room for strife or hostility, for pride or selfassertion, for exclusiveness or unkind judgments, nor for that kind of independence which leads men to ignore their fellowship with the great company of believers, the communion of saints. These things are contrary to the revealed will of God, and should be made at once to cease. As these disappear, the outward manifestation of unity will come in such ways as the Spirit of God shall guide. ... G. T. Manley, Christian Unity September 4, 2000 Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650 If all you have found [in Christianity] is advantage, whether it is fun or profit or security, then you haven't started following Him yet. His way is the way of the Cross. The world can be very hard on those it hates. If it is not hard on you, perhaps it sees nothing in you to hate. But then it doesn't see Jesus in you, for it hates Jesus with an undying hatred. While your way is still all fun, all easy, all jolly, it is only your way: when you turn from it to follow His way, it will cost. It may cost you everything you have. That is what it cost Him.

Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing. 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed.

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised God and his works.

We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation.

There are no ordinary moments.

Every true man's apparel fits your thief. -Measure for Measure. Act iv. Sc. 2.

If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes.

On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait, And from your judgment must expect my fate.

When you play with fire, you're gonna get burned.

View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan, And then deny him merit if you can. Where he falls short, 'tis Nature's fault alone Where he succeeds, the merit's all his own.

To Greece we give our shining blades.

Sign on a church bulletin board: Planning to go to Heaven? Get your flight training here.

Suppressed grief suffocates, it rages within the breast, and is forced to multiply its strength.

Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it's be brave or else be killed.

My lords, we are vertebrate animals, we are mammalia! My learned friend's manner would be intolerable in Almighty God to a black beetle.

Our greatest good, and what we least can spare, Is hope: the last of all our evils, fear.

You can't learn less.

Blushed like the waves of hell.