Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.

Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.

I read the book of Job last night, I don’t think God comes out well in it.

It is good to be tired and wearied by the futile search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

In everything one thing is impossible: rationality.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge – that is everywhere.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ.

Over the years I’ve learned how to lock myself up in a prison of hope, knowing that God has nothing but His best planned for me. He promised me things concerning my ministry and my life.

Hanging out with politicians and corporations is very unhip work. But I think that the U2 audience have turned out to be incredibly subtle in their understanding.

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

What is imponderable in the world is greater than what we can handle.

There is nothing permanent except change.

A psychoneurosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

I’m convinced that no one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving all sins.

A beautiful homily, a genuine sermon, must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation. There is nothing more solid, deep and sure than this proclamation.

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.

The book, ’12 Rules For Life,‘ is a very serious book. There’s elements of humor in it, but I’m trying to struggle with things at the deepest possible level and to explain to people why it’s necessary to live a upstanding and noble and moral and truthful and responsible life, and why there’s hell to pay if you don’t do that.

Base souls have no faith in great individuals.

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.

Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

For my own part, I would rather excel in knowledge of the highest secrets of philosophy than in arms.

It’s a mystery. That’s the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it’s mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

I am a Catholic because I choose to be a Catholic. And then I go to the Mass because I choose. It is out of my free will.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

I’m going to Heaven just like the thief on the cross who said in that last moment: ‚Lord, remember me.‘

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

Glory be and praise to God. I didn’t do any of this. God did. I don’t have a recipe or a blueprint. I prayed for it, and my prayers are continuing to be answered.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.