Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.
Quoted in William Sloane Coffin, The Heart Is a Little to the Left.
For you I am a bishop, but with you I am a Christian. The first is an office accepted; the second is a gift received. One is danger; the other is safety. If I am happier to be redeemed with you than to be placed over you, then I shall, as the Lord commanded, be more fully your servant.
via Bonnie Spencer (favorite quote)
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
You can force a man to enter a church , to approach the alter to receive the sacrament but you cannot force him believe.
Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.
Free curiosity is of more value than harsh discipline.
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
Suppress prostitution, and capricious lusts will overthrow society.
Dr. William W. Sanger, The History of Prostitution (page 91),
The world is like a book, and those that never leave home read but one page.
We need not despair of any man, so long as he lives. For God deemed it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit evil at all.
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.
What, then, is time? I know well enough what it is, provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am baffled.
Tolle lege, tolle lege.
[Take up and read, take up and read.]
Da mini castitatem et continentiam sed noli modo.
[Give me chastity and continence, but do not give it yet.]
Already I had learned from thee that because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false. Nor, again, is it necessarily true because rudely uttered, nor untrue because the language is brilliant. Wisdom and folly both are like meats that are wholesome and unwholesome, and courtly or simple words are like town-made or rustic vessels -- both kinds of food may be served in either kind of dish.
In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.
Trans. J. H. Taylor
Multi quidem facilius se abstinent ut non utantur, quam temperent ut bene utantur.
[To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.]
Est autem fides credere quod nondum vides; cuius fidei merces est videre quod credis.
[Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.]
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