There is one inevitable criterion of judgment touching religious faith ... Can you reduce it to practice? If not have none of it.

Too many people embrace religion from the same motives that they take a companion in wedlock, not from true love of the person, but because of a large dowry.

Tears of joy are like the summer rain drops pierced by sunbeams.

Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character.

Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.

There is no immunity from the consequences of sin; punishment is swift and sure to one and all.

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.

We must not only read the Scriptures, but we must make their rules of life our own.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

Energy, like the biblical grain of the mustard-seed, will remove mountains.

Theories are always very thin and insubstantial, experience only is tangible.

You ought to stop listening to stereotypes and start forming your own opinions.

Time wasters are life wasters

In the light of trust, as it develops slowly over time, you will find that you are a privileged child of the universe, entirely safe, entirely supported, entirely loved.

Run your purpose on the toes of your feet before people can type your success stories with the fingers of their hands.

If you don't expect much you can't be disappointed.

The new painting has broken down every distinction between art and life.

People have obsessions and fears and passions which they don't admit to. I think every character is interesting and has extremes. It's the novelist privilege to see how odd everyone is.

It's not easy to just say you don't want to do something any more.

I tried to have a cookie, and this girl said, "I'm mailing those cookies to my friend." So I couldn't have one. You shouldn't make cookies untouchable.

One philosophically fascinating aspect of Catholicism is the very strange conception of reality it presents (the incarnation, the eucharist, judgement day etc.).