The man that takes up religion for the world will throw away religion for the world.

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

If my life is fruitless, it doesn't matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn't matter who criticizes me.

You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

The difference between true and false repentance lies in this: the man who truly repents cries out against his heart; but the other, as Eve, against the serpent, or something else.

What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it.

No man, without trials and temptations, can attain a true understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

If people really see that Christ has removed the fear of punishment from them by taking it into Himself, they won't do whatever they want, they'll do whatever He wants.

The truths that I know best I have learned on my knees. I never know a thing well, till it is burned into my heart by prayer.

Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.

Does our purpose on Earth directly link to the people whom we end up meeting? Are our relationships and experiences actually the required dots that connect and then lead us to our ultimate destinies?

It's not when you realise that nothing can help you - religion, pride, anything - it's when you realise that you don't need any aid.

Acquittal of the guilty damns the judge.

Evidently the merit depends on the result of the work.

It is curious how tyrannical the habit of reading is...

Of all our feelings the only one which really doesn't belong to us is hope. Hope belongs to life, it's life itself defending itself. Etcetera.

I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple on Jusan Pond surrounded only by nature.

It may not happen in my lifetime, but if I can play a part in moving things along, then I feel I've done a good job.

Commercial conquest is far more thorough and final than military defeat.

Swedes, compared to Americans, can seem a little cold and introverted.