I understood that no one could have lobbed such a stinging wad of shame out into the world without having a considerable personal reserve of it to draw on.

A hint of - dare I say? - animism has entered into the scientific worldview. The physical world is no longer either dead or passively obedient to the "laws.

That's what "meaning" is—a special additive like salt or garlic that could make even the most fetid piece of meat seem palpable, even delicious.

Why "revere" the unknowable? Why not find out what it is?

If this was mental illness, or even just a particularly clinical case of adolescence, I was bearing up pretty well.

Too bad for any parent who has become accustomed to ruling by force, because at some point the kids just get too big to slap around.

The universe does not reveal itself to undergraduates or fools: This is the entire premise of higher education.

The Ten Commandments, for example, were no more challenging than the Girl Scout oath, and why should anyone be tempted to put one false god ahead of another?

In fact, the idea of a God who is both all-powerful and all good is a logical impossibility.

God's perspectives requires persistence. To have God's perspective in the world we live in requires persistence.

There are times when a man has need of the open heavens to compass his thoughts.

Counseling is ultimately not about the counselee or the counselor, but about the Divine Counselor.

You're not interesting in the least, " she spat. "I don't need to be, " I smiled. "That's what you need...And you're welcome to it.

Faith is believing before receiving.

You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times... and safely home again.

Since music has so much to do with the molding of character, it is necessary that we teach it to our children.

When people talk to me about the weather, I always feel they mean something else.

You're so calm and quiet, you never say. But there are things inside you. I see them sometimes, hiding in your eyes.

Very few persons go through life without at least one big chance. The fact that so many do not grasp it is due more often to fear than to any other one thing.