“Faith is to believe what you do not yet see: the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.”

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age.

Those who write ill, and they who ne’er durst write, Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.

I never saw any good that came of telling truth.

Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.

If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in some sort parties; for, since they say the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be sure that they will be impartial judges?

When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.

Since every man who lives is born to die, And none can boast sincere felicity, With equal mind, what happens, let us bear, Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care. Like pilgrims to the’ appointed place we tend; The world’s an inn, and death the journey’s end.

A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into truth.

Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer: Preventing angels met it half the way, And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.

The trumpet’s loud clangor Excites us to arms.

Present joys are more to flesh and blood Than a dull prospect of a distant good.

Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne’er pardon who have done wrong.

Trust reposed in noble natures obliges them the more.

Some of our philosophizing divines have too much exalted the faculties of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out God.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.

All heiresses are beautiful.

We Athenians hold that it is not poverty that is disgraceful but the failure to struggle against it.

Give yourself and everyone else some grace for being human.

The most important thing is growing old gracefully.

The older one gets, the more one feels that the present moment must be enjoyed, comparable to a state of grace.

This world is the first miracle God made. God has placed the grace of new wonders in our hands.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

Let us pray in silence that the Lord will give us this grace.

None of us shines with our own light: the light that we have is a reflection of the grace of God, of the light of God.