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Because A Thing Is Eloquently Expressed It Should Not Be Taken To Be As Necessarily True; Nor Because It Is Uttered With Stammering Lips Should It Be Supposed False.

-Saint Augustine

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Because A Thing Is

Saint Augustine

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Because A Thing Is Eloquently Expressed It Should Not Be Taken To Be As Necessarily True; Nor Because It Is Uttered With Stammering Lips Should It Be Supposed False.

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I Inquired What Wickedness Is, And I Didn't Find A Substance, But A Perversity Of Will Twisted Away From The Highest Substance - You, O God - Towards Inferior Things, Rejecting Its Own Inner Life And Swelling With External Matters.

How High A Price We Pay For The Burden Of Habit! I Am Fitted For Life Here Where I Do Not Want To Be, I Want To Live There But Am Unfit For It, And On Both Counts I Am Miserable.

Cyprian Was Not Issuing A New Decree But Was Keeping To The Most Solid Belief Of The Church In Order To Correct Some Who Thought That Infants Ought Not Be Baptized Before The Eighth Day After Their Birth. . . . He Agreed With Certain Of His Fellow Bishops That A Child Is Able To Be Duly Baptized As Soon As He Is Born.

To My God A Heart Of Flame; To My Fellow Man A Heart Of Love; To Myself A Heart Of Steel.

I Count Myself One Of The Number Of Those Who Write As They Learn And Learn As They Write.

He Who Labours, Prays.

Idolatry Is Worshipping Anything That Ought To Be Used, Or Using Anything That Is Meant To Be Worshipped.

God Without Us Will Not As We Without God Cannot.

Love And Say It With Your Life.

I Have Learnt To Love You Late, Beauty At Once So Ancient And So New!

Believe That Others Are Better Than You In The Debths Of Their Soul, Although Outwardly You May Appear Better Than They.

The Argument Is At An End.

There Is No Possible Source Of Evil Except Good.

Fortitude Is The Disposition Of Soul Which Enables Us To Despise All Inconveniences And The Loss Of Things Not In Our Power.

The Dove Loves When It Quarrels; The Wolf Hates When It Flatters.

It Is Not Earthly Riches Which Make Us Or Our Sons Happy; For They Must Either Be Lost By Us In Our Lifetime, Or Be Possessed When We Are Dead, By Whom We Know Not, Or Perhaps By Whom We Would Not.

I Would Not Believe In The Gospel, If The Authority Of The Catholic Church Did Not Bid Me To Do So.

Ignorance Itself Is Without A Doubt A Sin For Those Who Do Not Wish To Understand; For Those Who, However, Cannot Understand, It Is The Punishment Of Sin.

Therefore, Give To The Poor. I Beg You, I Admonish You, I Charge You, I Command You To Give.

Every Visible Thing In This World Is Put In The Charge Of An Angel.

There Is No Health In Those Who Are Displeased By An Element In Your Creation, Just As There Was None In Me When I Was Displeased By Many Things You Had Made. Because My Soul Didn't Dare To Say That My God Displeased Me, It Refused To Attribute To You Whatever Was Displeasing.

If You Lose Your Soul, There Is A Danger Of Its Being Destroyed. Therefore, You May Not Love It, Since You Do Not Want It To Be Destroyed. But In Not Wanting It To Be Destroyed, You Love It.

Pray As Though Everything Depended On God. Work As Though Everything Depended On You.

Find Out How Much God Has Given You And From It Take What You Need; The Remainder Is Needed By Others.

Will Is To Grace As The Horse Is To The Rider.

The Way To Christ Is First Through Humility, Second Through Humility, And Third Through Humility. If Humility Does Not Precede And Accompany And Follow Every Good Work We Do, If It Is Not Before Us To Focus On, It It Is Not Beside Us To Lean Upon, If It Is Not Behind Us To Fence Us In, Pride Will Wrench From Our Hand Any Good Deed We Do At The Very Moment We Do It.

It Is This One Spirit Who Makes It Possible For An Infant To Be Regenerated . . . When That Infant Is Brought To Baptism; And It Is Through This One Spirit That The Infant So Presented Is Reborn. For It Is Not Written, 'unless A Man Be Born Again By The Will Of His Parents' Or 'by The Faith Of Those Presenting Him Or Ministering To Him,' But, 'unless A Man Be Born Again Of Water And The Holy Spirit.' The Water, Therefore, Manifesting Exteriorly The Sacrament Of Grace, And The Spirit Effecting Interiorly The Benefit Of Grace, Both Regenerate In One Christ That Man Who Was Generated In Adam.

I Have Said Before, And I Shall Say Again, That I Write This Book For Love Of Your Love.

The Church Even Now Is The Kingdom Of Christ And The Kingdom Of Heaven. Accordingly, Even Now His Saints Reign With Him, Though Otherwise Than As They Shall Reign Hereafter; And Yet, Though The Tares Grow In The Church Along With The Wheat, They Do Not Reign With Him. For They Reign With Him Who Do What The Apostle Says, 'if You Are Risen With Christ, Mind The Things Which Are Above, Where Christ Sits At The Right Hand Of God. Seek Those Things Which Are Above, Not The Things Which Are On The Earth'.

On The Altar You Are Looking At The Same Thing As You Saw There Last Night. You Have Not Heard, However, What This Is, What It Signifies, Or About The Greatness Of The Reality Of Which It Is A Sacrament. Your Eyes Are Looking At Bread And Cup. This Is The Evidence Before Your Physical Sight. But Your Faith Must Be Instructed Concerning It- This Bread Being Christ 's Body And The Cup Containing His Blood. Though Perhaps These Words May Be Enough To Initiate Faith, Faith Must Be Further Instructed In Accordance With The Prophet's Words: 'believe That You May Understand'

There Is A Joy Which Is Not Given To The Ungodly, But To Those Who Love Thee For Thine Own Sake, Whose Joy Thou Thyself Art. And This Is The Happy Life, To Rejoice To Thee, Of Thee, For Thee; This It Is, And There Is No Other.

God Does Not Give Heed To The Ambitiousness Of Our Prayers, Because He Is Always Ready To Give To Us His Light, Not A Visible Light But An Intellectual And Spiritual One; But We Are Not Always Ready To Receive It When We Turn Aside And Down To Other Things Out Of A Desire For Temporal Things.

Everyone Who Observes Himself Doubting Observes A Truth, And About That Which He Observes He Is Certain; Therefore He Is Certain About A Truth. Everyone Therefore Who Doubts Whether Truth Exists Has In Himself A Truth On Which Not To Doubt.... Hence One Who Can Doubt At All Ought Not To Doubt The Existence Of Truth.

Slavery Is Not Penal In Character And Planned By That Law Which Commands The Preservation Of The Natural Order And Forbids Disturbance.

So You See How Endlessly Futile And Fruitless It Would Be If We Wanted To Refute Their Objections Every Time They Obstinately Resolved Not To Think Through What They Say But Merely To Speak, Just So Long As They Contradict Our Arguments In Any Way They Can.

While The Best Men Are Guided By Love, Most Mean Are Still Goaded By Fear.

Peace In Society Depends Upon Peace In The Family.

My Mother Spoke Of Christ To My Father, By Her Feminine And Childlike Virtues, And, After Having Borne His Violence Without A Murmur Or Complaint, Gained Him At The Close Of His Life To Christ.

Your Best Servant Is The Person Who Does Not Attend So Much To Hearing What He Himself Wants As To Willing What He Has Heard From You.

Between Urine And Filth We Are Born.

I Thought That Continence Was A Matter Of Our Own Strength, And I Knew That I Had Not The Strength: For In My Utter Foolishness I Did Not Know The Word Of Your Scripture That None Can Be Continent Unless You Give It.

Salvation Is God's Way Of Making Us Real People.

When Regard For Truth Has Been Broken Down Or Even Slightly Weakened, All Things Will Remain Doubtful.

Whoever, Then, Thinks That He Understands The Holy Scriptures, Or Any Part Of Them, But Puts Such An Interpretation Upon Them As Does Not Tend To Build Up This Twofold Love Of God And Our Neighbor, Does Not Yet Understand Them As He Ought.

There Is No Remedy So Powerful Against The Heat Of Concupiscence As The Remembrance Of Our Savior's Passion. In All My Difficulties I Never Found Anything So Efficacious As The Wounds Of Christ: In Them I Sleep Secure; From Them I Derive New Life.

Longing Desire Prayeth Always, Though The Tongue Be Silent. If Thou Art Ever Longing, Thou Art Ever Praying.

We Were Ensnared By The Wisdom Of The Serpent; We Are Set Free By The Foolishness Of God .

The Heart Of Man Is Restless Until He Finds Rest In Thee.

Of This I Am Certain, That No One Has Ever Died Who Was Not Destined To Die Some Time. Now The End Of Life Puts The Longest Life On A Par With The Shortest... And Of What Consequence Is It What Kind Of Death Puts An End To Life, Since He Who Has Died Once Is Not Forced To Go Through The Same Ordeal A Second Time? They, Then, Who Are Destined To Die, Need Not Be Careful To Inquire What Death They Are To Die, But Into What Place Death Will Usher Them.

Other Sins Find Their Vent In The Accomplishment Of Evil Deeds, Whereas Pride Lies In Wait For Good Deeds, To Destroy Them.

Consequently, Heretics And Schismatics, Separated From The Unity Of This Body, Are Able To Receive The Same Sacrament, But With No Benefit To Themselves; Indeed, More To Their Own Harm, In That They Are Judged The More Severely Rather Than Being Liberated.

Because A Thing Is Eloquently Expressed It Should Not Be Taken To Be As Necessarily True; Nor Because It Is Uttered With Stammering Lips Should It Be Supposed False.

God Grants Us Not Always What We Ask So As To Bestow Something Preferable.

Since God Is The Highest Good, He Would Not Allow Any Evil To Exist In His Works Unless His Omnipotence And Goodness Were Such As To Bring Good Even Out Of Evil.

Do You Who Are A Christian Desire To Be Revenged And Vindicated, And The Death Of Jesus Christ Has Not Yet Been Revenged, Nor His Innocence Vindicated?

And He Departed From Our Sight That We Might Return To Our Hearts And Find Him There. For He Left Us, And Behold, He Is Here.

We Both Exist And Know That We Exist, And Rejoice In This Knowledge.

Without God, We Cannot. Without Us, God Will Not.

Christian Inspirational

The Words Printed Here Are Concepts. You Must Go Through The Experiences.

When All Is Said And Done, Is There Any More Wonderful Sight, Any Moment When Man's Reason Is Nearer To Some Sort Of Contact With The Nature Of The World Than The Sowing Of Seeds, The Planting Of Cuttings, The Transplanting Of Shrubs Or The Grafting Of Slips?

Better To Have Fewer Wants Than Greater Riches To Supply Increasing Wants.

Nothing Conquers Except Truth And The Victory Of Truth Is Love.

Unhappy Is The Soul Enslaved By The Love Of Anything That Is Mortal.

Who Can Map Out The Various Forces At Play In One Soul? Man Is A Great Depth, O Lord. The Hairs Of His Head Are Easier By Far To Count Than His Feeling, The Movements Of His Heart.

What Is More Insane Than To Be Partakers Of The Sacraments Of The Lord And Not Partakers Of The Words Of The Lord? These Men Truly Have To Say: "in Thy Name We Have Eaten And Drunk," And They Will Have To Hear: "i Do Not Know You!" (luke 13:26-27). They Eat And Drink His Body And Blood In The Sacrament And Do Not Recognize In The Gospel His Members Spread Over The Whole World, And For This Reason They Are Not Numbered Among Them At The Judgment.

Temperance Is Love Surrendering Itself Wholly To Him Who Is Its Object; Courage Is Love Bearing All Things Gladly For The Sake Of Him Who Is Its Object; Justice Is Love Serving Only Him Who Is Its Object, And Therefore Rightly Ruling; Prudence Is Love Making Wise Distinction Between What Hinders And What Helps Itself.

Lust Indulged Became Habit, And Habit Unresisted Became Necessity.

Purity And Love

The Arrogance Is Not Greatness But Swelling; And The Swelling Seems Big But It's Not Healthy.

Any Woman Who Does Not Give Birth To As Many Children As She Is Capable Is Guilty Of Murder.

The Peace Of The Celestial City Is The Perfectly Ordered And Harmonious Enjoyment Of God, And Of One Another In God. (city Of God, Book 19)

Thou Must Be Emptied Of That Wherewith Thou Art Full, That Thou Mayest Be Filled With That Whereof Thou Art Empty.

His Knowledge Is Not Like Ours, Which Has Three Tenses; Present, Past, And Future. God's Knowledge Has No Change Or Variation.

The Good Man, Though A Slave, Is Free; The Wicked, Though He Reigns, Is A Slave, And Not The Slave Of A Single Man, But- What Is Worse - The Slave Of As Many Masters As He Has Vices.

Conscience And Reputation Are Two Things. Conscience Is Due To Yourself, Reputation To Your Neighbour.

Since Love Grows Within You, So Beauty Grows. For Love Is The Beauty Of The Soul.

Though In The Order Of Nature Angels Rank Above Men, Yet, By Scale Of Justice, Good Men Are Of Greater Value Than Bad Angels.

A Christian Man Is On His Guard With Respect To Those Who Philosophize According To The Elements Of This World, Not According To God, By Whom The World Itself Was Made; For He Is Warned By The Precept Of The Apostle And Faithfully Hears What Has Been Said, 'beware That No One Deceive You Through Philosophy And Vain Deceit, According To The Elements Of The World'

In Matters That Are So Obscure And Far Beyond Our Vision, We Find In Holy Scripture Passages Which Can Be Interpreted In Very Different Ways Without Prejudice To The Faith We Have Received. In Such Cases, We Should Not Rush In Headlong And So Firmly Take Our Stand On One Side That, If Further Progress In The Search For Truth Justly Undermines This Position, We Too Fall With It.

Disturbers Are To Be Rebuked, The Low Spirited To Be Encouraged, The Infirm To Be Supported, Objectors Confuted, The Treacherous Guarded Against, The Unskilled Taught, The Lazy Aroused, The Contentious Restrained, The Haughty Repressed, The Poor Relieved, The Oppressed Liberated, The Good Approved, The Evil Borne With, And All Are To Be Loved!

Beauty Is Indeed A Good Gift Of God; But That The Good May Not Think It A Great Good, God Dispenses It Even To The Wicked.

A Thing Is Not Necessarily True Because Badly Uttered, Nor False Because Spoken Magnificently.

True Happiness Is To Rejoice In The Truth, For To Rejoice In The Truth Is To Rejoice In You, O God, Who Are The Truth... Those Who Think That There Is Another Kind Of Happiness Look For Joy Elsewhere, But Theirs Is Not True Joy.

All Truth And Understanding Is A Result Of A Divine Light Which Is God Himself.

The Entire Most Beautiful Order Of Things That Are Very Good, When Their Measures Have Been Accomplished, Is To Pass Away.

You Wish To Be Great, Begin From The Least. You Are Thinking To Construct Some Mighty Fabric In Height; First Think Of The Foundation Of Humility. And How Great Soever A Mass Of Building One May Wish And Design To Place Above It, The Greater The Building Is To Be, The Deeper Does He Dig His Foundation.

O Sacrament Of Love! O Sign Of Unity! O Bond Of Charity! He Who Would Have Life Finds Here Indeed A Life To Live In And A Life To Live By.

If A Parricide Is More Wicked Than Anyone Who Commits Homicide-because He Kills Not Merely A Man But A Near Relative-without Doubt Worse Still Is He Who Kills Himself, Because There Is None Nearer To A Man Than Himself.

It Is Not With Respect To Our Convenience Or Discomfort, But With Respect To Their Own Nature That The Creatures Are Glorifying To Their Artificer.

What Art Thou Then, My God? What, But The Lord God? For Who Is Lord But The Lord? Or Who Is God Save Our God? Most Highest, Most Good, Most Potent, Most Omnipotent; Most Merciful, Yet Most Just; Most Hidden, Yet Most Present; Most Beautiful, Yet Most Strong; Stable, Yet Incomprehensible; Unchangeable, Yet All-changing; Never New, Never Old; All-renewing, And Bringing Age Upon The Proud, And They Know It Not; Ever Working, Ever At Rest; Still Gathering, Yet Nothing Lacking; Supporting, Filling, And Overspreading; Creating, Nourishing, And Maturing; Seeking, Yet Having All Things.

Humility Must Accompany All Our Actions, Must Be With Us Everywhere; For As Soon As We Glory In Our Good Works They Are Of No Further Value To Our Advancement In Virtue.

The Soul, Which Is Spirit, Can Not Dwell In Dust; It Is Carried Along To Dwell In The Blood.

Let Us Leave A Little Room For Reflection In Our Lives, Room Too For Silence. Let Us Look Within Ourselves And See Whether There Is Some Delightful Hidden Place Inside Where We Can Be Free Of Noise And Argument. Let Us Hear The Word Of God In Stillness And Perhaps We Will Then Come To Understand It.

It Was In His Flesh That Christ Walked Among Us And It Is His Flesh That He Has Given Us To Eat For Our Salvation; But No One Eats Of This Flesh Without Having First Adored It . . . And Not Only Do We Not Sin In Thus Adoring It, But We Would Be Sinning If We Did Not Do So.

Poltinus The Platonist Proves By Means Of The Blossoms And Leaves That From The Supreme God, Whose Beauty Is Invisible And Ineffable, Providence Reaches Down To The Things Of Earth Here Below. He Points Out That These Frail And Mortal Objects Could Not Be Endowed With A Beauty So Immaculate And So Exquisitely Wrought, Did They Not Issue From The Divinity Which Endlessly Prevades With Its Invisible And Unchanging Beauty All Things.

This Awful Catastrophe Is Not The End But The Beginning. History Does Not End So. It Is The Way Its Chapters Open.

The Sacraments Are The Salvation Of Those Who Use Them Rightly, And The Damnation Of Those Who Misuse Them.

It Is A Sin To Judge Any Man By His Post

The Fruits Of Charity Are Joy, Peace, And Mercy; Charity Demands Beneficence And Fraternal Correction; It Is Benevolence; It Fosters Reciprocity And Remains Disinterested And Generous; It Is Friendship And Communion: Love Is Itself The Fulfillment Of All Our Works. There Is The Goal; That Is Why We Run: We Run Toward It, And Once We Reach It, In It We Shall Find Rest.

When God Is Our Strength, It Is Strength Indeed; When Our Strength Is Our Own, It Is Only Weakness.

I Do Not Doubt That All Those Who Have Received Baptism Anywhere And From Whomever Do Have Baptism, As Long As It Was Consecrated With The Words Of The Gospel And They Received It Without Pretence On Their Part And With Some Degree Of Faith. However, It Would Not Avail Them For Their Spiritual Salvation If They Were Lacking In That Charity By Which They Might Be Implanted In The Catholic Church.

The Head And The Body Are Christ Wholly And Entirely. The Head Is The Only Begotten Son Of God, The Body Is His Church; The Bridegroom And The Bride, Two In One Flesh. All Who Dissent From The Scriptures Concerning Christ, Although They May Be Found In All Places In Which The Church Is Found, Are Not In The Church; And Again All Those Who Agree With The Scriptures Concerning The Head, And Do Not Communicate In The Unity Of The Church, Are Not In The Church.

There Never Can Have Been, And Never Can Be, And There Never Shall Be Any Sin Without Pride.

What The Universal Church Holds, Not As Instituted [invented] By Councils But As Something Always Held, Is Most Correctly Believed To Have Been Handed Down By Apostolic Authority. Since Others Respond For Children, So That The Celebration Of The Sacrament May Be Complete For Them, It Is Certainly Availing To Them For Their Consecration, Because They Themselves Are Not Able To Respond.

Remember This. When People Choose To Withdraw Far From A Fire, The Fire Continues To Give Warmth, But They Grow Cold. When People Choose To Withdraw Far From Light, The Light Continues To Be Bright In Itself But They Are In Darkness. This Is Also The Case When People Withdraw From God.

We Come To God By Love And Not By Navigation.

The Wicked Have Told Me Of Things That Delight Them, But Not Such Things As Your Law Has To Tell.

What Matters It To Me If Someone Does Not Understand This? Let Him Too Rejoice And Say, “what Is This?” Let Him Rejoice Even At This, And Let Him Love To Find You While Not Finding It Out, Rather Than, While Finding It Out, Not To Find You.

I Did Not Find You Outside, O Lord, Because I Made The Mistake Of Seeking Outside You Who Were Within

Da Mihi Castitatem Et Continentiam, Sed Noli Modo (give Me Chastity And Continence, But Not Just Yet)!

Often The Contempt Of Vainglory Becomes A Source Of Even More Vainglory, For It Is Not Being Scorned When The Contempt Is Something One Is Proud Of.

Not All, Nor Even A Majority, Are Saved. . . They Are Indeed Many, If Regarded By Themselves, But They Are Few In Comparison With The Far Larger Number Of Those Who Shall Be Punished With The Devil.

Make Friends With Angels.

Hear, O God. Alas, For Man's Sin! So Saith Man, And Thou Pitiest Him; For Thou Madest Him, But Sin Is In Him Thou Madest Not. Who Remindeth Me Of The Sins Of My Infancy? For In Thy Sight None Is Pure From Sin, Not Even The Infant Whose Life Is But A Day Upon The Earth.

There Is No Greater Invitation To Love Than Loving First.

Whoever, Therefore, Thinks That He Understands The Divine Scriptures Or Any Part Of Them So That It Does Not Build On The Double Love Of God And Of Our Neighbor Does Not Understand It At All. Thus A Man Supported By Faith, Hope, And Charity, With An Unshaken Hold Upon Them Does Not Need The Scriptures. . . And Many Live By These Three Things In Solitude Without Books.

The Fellow Who Eggs You On To Avenge Yourself Will Rob You Of What You Were Going To Say - As We Forgive Our Debtors . When You Have Forfeited That, All Your Sins Will Be Held Against You; Absolutely Nothing Is Forgiven.

He Who Created Us Without Our Help Will Not Save Us Without Our Consent.

Solvitur Ambulando . . . It Is Solved By Walking.

Be Always Displeased At What Thou Art, If Thou Desirest To Attain To What Thou Art Not.

The Holy Scriptures Are Our Letters From Home.

The World's Verdict Is Conclusive.

Nothing Whatever Pertaining To Godliness And Real Holiness Can Be Accomplished Without Grace .

Beauty Is The Brilliance Of Truth.

I Found Thee Not, O Lord, Without, Because I Erred In Seeking Thee Without That Wert Within.

When I Come To Be United To Thee With All My Being, Then There Will Be No More Pain And Toil For Me, And My Life Shall Be A Real Life, Being Wholly Filled By Thee.

If There Is Something More Excellent Than The Truth, Then That Is God; If Not, Then Truth Itself Is God.

O Lord, Grant That I May Do Thy Will As If It Were My Will, So That Thou Mayest Do My Will As If It Were Thy Will.

If Bodies Please Thee, Praise God On Occasion Of Them, And Turn Back Thy Love Upon Their Maker; Lest In These Things Which Please Thee, Thou Displease. If Souls Please Thee, Be They Loved In God: For They Too Are Mutable, But In Him They Are Firmly Established.

So Give To The Poor; I'm Begging You, I'm Warning You, I'm Commanding You, I'm Ordering You.

It Is Better That The Truth Be Known Than That Scandal Be Covered Up.

Christ Is Not Valued At All, Unless He Is Valued Above All.

Christian Inspirational

What Is Grace? I Know Until You Ask Me; When You Ask Me, I Do Not Know.

Symbols Are Powerful Because They Are The Visible Signs Of Invisible Realities.

Let The Lord Your God Be Your Hope – Seek For Nothing Else From Him, But Let Him Himself Be Your Hope. There Are People Who Hope From Him Riches Or Perishable And Transitory Honours, In Short They Hope To Get From God Things Which Are Not God Himself.

Love And Do What You Want. If You Stop Talking, You Will Stop Talking With Love; If You Shout, You Will Shout With Love; If You Correct, You Will Correct With Love.

Purity Of Soul Cannot Be Lost Without Consent.

We Can Know What God Is Not, But We Cannot Know What He Is.

Man Has Been Naturally So Created That It Is Advantageous For Him To Be Submissive, But Disastrous For Him To Follow His Own Will, And Not The Will Of His Creator.

Don't Go Outside; Get Back To Yourself, In The Inner Man Lies The Truth.

Blessedness Consists In The Accomplishment Of Our Desires, And In Our Having Only Regular Desires.

When, Therefore, Man Lives According To Man, Not According To God, He Is Like The Devil.

Education Is The Food Of Youth, The Delight Of Old Age, The Ornament Of Prosperity, The Refuge And Comfort Of Adversity, And The Provocation To Grace In The Soul.

What Are Kingdoms Without Justice? They're Just Gangs Of Bandits.

Even The Straws Under My Knees Shout To Distract Me From Prayer

There Is Another Form Of Temptation, Even More Fraught With Danger. This Is The Disease Of Curiosity. It Is This Which Drives Us To Try And Discover The Secrets Of Nature, Those Secrets Which Are Beyond Our Understanding, Which Can Avail Us Nothing And Which Man Should Not Wish To Learn.

I Do Not Comprehend All That I Am. Is The Mind, Therefore, Too Limited To Possess Itself?

The Truth Is Like A Lion; You Don’t Have To Defend It. Let It Loose; It Will Defend Itself.

The Confession Of Evil Works Is The First Beginning Of Good Works.

Furthermore, What Profit Was It To Me That I, Rascally Slave Of Selfish Ambitions That I Was, Read And Understood By Myself As Many Books As I Could Get Concerning The So-called Liberal Arts?...i Had Turned My Back To The Light And My Face To The Things It Illuminated, And So No Light Played Upon My Own Face, Or On The Eyes That Perceived Them.

Near Our Vineyard There Was A Pear Tree Laden With Fruit That Was Not Attractive In Either Flavor Or Form. One Night, When I [at The Age Of Sixteen] Had Played Until Dark On The Sandlot With Some Other Juvenile Delinquents, We Went To Shake That Tree And Carry Off Its Fruit. From It We Carried Off Huge Loads, Not To Feast On, But To Throw To The Pigs, Although We Did Eat A Few Ourselves. We Did It Just Because It Was Forbidden.

What Can Be Hoped For Which Is Not Believed?

The Desire For Fame Tempts Even Noble Minds.

We Judge All Things According To The Divine Truth.

Let Us, On Both Sides, Lay Aside All Arrogance. Let Us Not, On Either Side, Claim That We Have Already Discovered The Truth. Let Us Seek It Together As Something Which Is Known To Neither Of Us. For Then Only May We Seek It, Lovingly And Tranquilly, If There Be No Bold Presumption That It Is Already Discovered And Possessed.

We Should Never Use The Truth To Wound.

The Old (testament) Is In The New (testament) Revealed, The New Is In The Old Concealed.

The Honors Of This World, What Are They But Puff, And Emptiness, And Peril Of Falling?

Falling In Love

A Wanton Eye Is A Messenger Of An Unchaste Heart.

Sin Is Energy In The Wrong Channel.

The Good Christian Should Beware The Mathematician And All Those Who Make Empty Prophecies. The Danger Already Exists That The Mathematicians Have Made A Covenant With The Devil To Darken The Spirit And To Confine Man In The Bonds Of Hell.

Love All Men, Even Your Enemies; Love Them, Not Because They Are Your Brothers, But That They May Become Your Brothers. Thus You Will Ever Burn With Fraternal Love, Both For Him Who Is Already Your Brother And For Your Enemy, That He May By Loving Become Your Brother.

If By Fate Anyone Means The Will Or Power Of God, Let Him Keep His Meaning But Mend His Language; For Fate Commonly Means A Necessary Process Which Will Have Its Way Apart From The Will Of God And Men.

The Weakness Of Little Children's Limbs Is Innocent, Not Their Souls.

My Mind Withdrew Its Thoughts From Experience, Extracting Itself From The Contradictory Throng Of Sensuous Images, That It Might Find Out What That Light Was Wherein It Was Bathed... And Thus, With The Flash Of One Hurried Glance, It Attained To The Vision Of That Which Is.

The Mere Change Of Custom, Even Though It May Be Of Advantage In Some Respects, Unsettles Men By Reason Of The Novelty: Therefore, If It Brings No Advantage, It Does Much Harm By Unprofitably Disturbing The Church.

Your First Task Is To Be Dissatisfied With Yourself, Fight Sin, And Transform Yourself Into Something Better. Your Second Task Is To Put Up With The Trials And Temptations Of This World That Will Be Brought On By The Change In Your Life And To Persevere To The Very End In The Midst Of These Things.

Humility Is The Foundation Of All The Other Virtues Hence, In The Soul In Which This Virtue Does Not Exist There Cannot Be Any Other Virtue Except In Mere Appearance.

Every City Is A Living Body.

He Loves Thee Too Little, Who Loves Anything Together With Thee, Which He Loves Not For Thy Sake.

The Playthings Of Our Elders Are Called Business.

Whoever Seems To Himself To Have Understood The Scriptures In Such A Way That He Does Not Build Up That Double Love Of God And Neighbor Has Not Yet Understood.

Hope Has Two Beautiful Daughters; Their Names Are Anger And Courage. Anger At The Way Things Are, And Courage To See That They Do Not Remain As They Are.

Do Not Say That You Have Chaste Minds If You Have Unchaste Eyes, Because An Unchaste Eye Is The Messenger Of An Unchaste Heart.

You Have Enemies. For Who Can Live On This Earth Without Them? Take Heed To Yourselves: Love Them. In No Way Can Your Enemy So Hurt You By His Violence, As You Hurt Yourself If You Love Him Not.

The One Who Sings, Prays Twice.

Love God, Then Do What You Will.

Love God And Do Whatever You Please: For The Soul Trained In Love To God Will Do Nothing To Offend The One Who Is Beloved.

What You Are Must Always Displease You, If You Would Attain To That Which You Are Not.

God Is More Truly Imagined Than Expressed, And He Exists More Truly Than He Is Imagined.

Where Scripture Speaks Of The World's Creation, It Is Not Plainly Said Whether Or When The Angels Were Created; But If Mention Is Made, It Is Implicit Under The Name Of "heaven," When It Is Said, "in The Beginning God Created The Heavens And The Earth."

There Is Something In Humility Which, Strangely Enough, Exalts The Heart, And Something In Pride Which Debases It.

I Was Unhappy And So Is Every Soul Unhappy Which Is Tied To Its Love For Mortal Things; When It Loses Them, It Is Torn In Pieces, And It Is Then That It Comes To Realize The Unhappiness Which Was There Even Before It Lost Them.

I Was Not Yet In Love, Yet I Loved To Love...i Sought What I Might Love, In Love With Loving.

Thou Movest Us To Delight In Praising Thee; For Thou Hast Formed Us For Thyself, And Our Hearts Are Restless Till They Find Rest In Thee.

Only He Who Made Man Makes Man Happy.

God Provides The Wind, Man Must Raise The Sail.

Indifferent Acts Are Judged By Their Ends Sins Are Judged By Themselves.

Because God Has Made Us For Himself, Our Hearts Are Restless Until They Rest In Him.

It Is Love That Asks, That Seeks, That Knocks, That Finds, And That Is Faithful To What It Finds.

If Faith Fails, Prayer Perishes.

Mary Heard God's Word And Kept It, And So She Is Blessed. She Kept God's Truth In Her Mind, A Nobler Thing Than Carrying His Body In Her Womb.

The Soul Is "torn Apart In A Painful Condition As Long As It Prefers The Eternal Because Of Its Truth But Does Not Discard The Temporal Because Of Familiarity.

He That Is Kind Is Free, Though He Is A Slave; He That Is Evil Is A Slave, Though He Be A King.

We Make Ourselves A Ladder Out Of Our Vices If We Trample The Vices Themselves Underfoot.

We Count On God's Mercy For Our Past Mistakes, On God's Love For Our Present Needs, On God's Sovereignty For Our Future.

For What Is Time? ... Who Can Even In Thought Comprehend It, So As To Utter A Word About It? ... If No One Asks Me, I Know: If I Wish To Explain It To One That Asketh, I Know Not.

You Called And Shouted And Burst My Deafness. You Flashed, Shone, And Scattered My Blindness. You Breathed Odors, And I Drew In Breath And Panted For You. I Tasted, And I Hunger And Thirst. You Touched Me, And I Burned For Your Peace.

Hunger And Thirst

In Order To Discover The Character Of People We Have Only To Observe What They Love.

Far Be It From Us To Doubt That All Number Is Known To Him 'whose Understanding Is Infinite' (ps. 147:5). The Infinity Of Number, Though There Be No Numbering Of Infinite Numbers, Is Yet Not Incomprehensible By Him Whose Understanding Is Infinite. And Thus, If Everything Which Is Comprehended Is Defined Or Made Finite By The Comprehension Of Him Who Knows It, Then All Infinity Is In Some Ineffable Way Made Finite To God, For It Is Comprehensible By His Knowledge.

Love Is Ever New Because It Never Groweth Old.

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