“The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.”

Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.

Poverty makes a slave out of men. In order to eat he will accept work that gives no pleasure.

You have to let other people be right’ was his answer to their insults. ‘It consoles them for not being anything else.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.

Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it.

The funny thing about love is that it must continually grow or it will diminish.

What would a narrative of happiness be like? All that can be described is what prepares it, and then what destroys it.

Envying another man’s happiness is madness; you wouldn’t know what to do with it if you had it.

Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.

Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

I do not love men: I love what devours them.

A man thinks he owns things, and it is he who is owned.

Welcome everything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.

To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece – by thought, choice, courage, and determination.

Today I am grateful for the gift of breath.

In a world of complete economic equality, you get and keep the affections you deserve. You can’t buy love with gifts or favors, you can’t hold love by raising an inadequate child, and you can’t be secure in love by serving as a good scrub woman or a good provider.

I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered its fate into the hands of a maniac.

Character is the most precious gift of education.

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.

He was the blessing that came into her life. She was the gift that he found. The universe brought them into each others lives. Destiny would find a way to bring them together. And they would find their way to each other.

How carelessly imperial power vivisected ancient civilizations. Palestine and Kashmir are imperial Britain’s festering, blood-drenched gifts to the modem world. Both are fault lines in the raging international con�icts of today.