The will to originality is not the will to be peculiar and unlike anybody else; it means the desire to derive one's consciousness from its primary source.

Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.

Every moral act of love, of mercy, and of sacrifice brings to pass the end of the world where hatred, cruelty, and selfishness reign supreme.

Perhaps the saddest thing to admit is that those who rejected the Cross have to carry it, while those who welcomed it are so often engaged in crucifying others.

The creation of the world is not only a process which moves from God to humanity. God demands newness from humanity; God awaits the works of human freedom.

The enslaving of the other is also the enslaving of the self.

Utopias now appear much more realizable than one used to think. We are now faced with a different new worry: How to prevent their realization.

The meaning of conservatism is not that it impedes movement forward and upward, but that it impedes movement backwards and downwards—to chaotic darkness and the return to a primitive state.

Freedom is the power to create out of nothing, the power of the spirit to create out of itself.

Death, that final evil, is one of the paths to eternity. Endless life in the conditions of our existence would be a nightmare.

The overwhelming majority of people, including Christians, are materialists. They do not believe in the power of spirit. They believe only in material power.

Cutting out bad habits is far more effective than cutting out organs.

Commercial fiction writing – where my bread is buttered – is fairly straightforward. The writing is simply efficiency and story. The more you have of one the less you need of the other.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I'm not trying to be anyone's savior. I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

It was a cookie, not a crack pipe.

It is senseless to argue with someone whose sole purpose in life is to not be convinced of anything.

Information is antifragile; it feeds more on attempts to harm it than it does on efforts to promote it.

A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul.

Love pays attention. Love listens to the fears and the doubts of others and treats them with respect. Love accepts others the way Jesus accepts you.

Every moment comes to us pregnant with a command from God, only to pass on and plunge into eternity, there to remain forever what we have made of it.

But there was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and that was this: it was happening.