“But facts are chiels that winna ding, An’ downa be disputed.”

Nature’s law, That man was made to mourn. Man’s inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn! O Death, the poor man’s dearest friend, The kindest and the best!

Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.

Nae man can tether time or tide.

Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.

To see her is to love her, And love but her forever; For nature made her what she is, And never made anither!

Here’s to us, who’s like us Damn few, and they’re all dead.

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.

But to see her was to love her, Love but her, and love forever.

Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom’s root.

The upright, honest-hearted man Who strives to do the best he can, Need never fear the church’s ban Or hell’s damnation.

Anticipation forward points the view.

Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white-then melts for ever.

If there’s another world, he lives in bliss; if there is none, he made the best of this.

Painters and poets have liberty to lie.

Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing.

What is life, when wanting love? Night without a morning; Love’s the cloudless summer sun, Nature gay adorning.

It was not the volume of sin that sent Christ to the cross; it was the fact of sin.

Life is bendable to our will more than we know. In fact, that’s the deal. If we don’t know that life bends to our will, it will not. So the trick is to know that life is on our side — and but awaits our command.

IMAGINATION, n. A warehouse of facts, with poet and liar in joint ownership.

I’m not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other.

Religious faith obscures uncertainty where uncertainty exists, allowing the unknown, the implausible, and the false to achieve primacy over the facts.

Insufficient facts always invite danger.

Let those who think that the Church pays too much attention to Mary give heed to the fact that Our Blessed Lord Himself gave ten times as much of His life to her as He gave to His Apostles.

When we struggle to change ourselves we, in fact, only continue the patterns of self-judgement and aggression. We keep the war against ourselves alive.