How can one preach goodness and love to men without at the same time offering them an interpretation of the World that justifies this goodness and this love?

Death surrenders us totally to God: it makes us enter into him; we must, in return, surrender ourselves to death with absolute love and self-abandonment since, when death comes, all we can do is to surrender ourselves completely to the domination and guidance of God.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

The desire for possession is insatiable, to such a point that it can survive even love itself. To love, therefore, is to sterilize the person one loves.

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

It’s really easy to have a nice philosophy about openness, but moving the world in that direction is a different thing. It requires both understanding where you want to go and being pragmatic about getting there.

Do you not realize that the love the Father bestowed on the perfect Christ He now bestows on you?

The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.

I believe things cannot make themselves impossible.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

In times of need, God can come to you in a myriad of disguises.

Normally, when someone we love is turning away from a struggle, we self-protect by also turning away. That’s definitely my first response. I think change is more likely to happen if both partners have common language and a shared lens to see problems.

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.

They died hard, those savage men – like wounded wolves at bay. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stunk. And I loved them.

I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.

A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

Your feelings so are important to write down, to capture, and to remember because today you’re heartbroken, but tomorrow you’ll be in love again.

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Jesus didn’t die for us so we could pretend to be something we’re not.

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

I have learned to know God. I have recast my social belief… All my admirers are married; most of my friends are dead; and I stand with all the world before me, where to choose a path to make in it.

Philosophy begins in wonder.

God doesn’t do things halfway. He goes all out! When God does something, it’s not just barely enough, mediocre or lukewarm.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

The Bible says that God has a reason for keeping us here; if He didn’t, He would take us to Heaven far sooner.

Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration?

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life’s wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.

In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.

Peace is one of the most precious gifts God has promised His children.

Nothing can be divided into more parts than it can possibly be constituted of. But matter (i.e. finite) cannot be constituted of infinite parts.

If you wished to be loved, love.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

We must accept what science tells us, that man was born from the earth. But, more logical than the scientists who lecture us, we must carry this lesson to its conclusion: that is to say, accept that man was born entirely from the world – not only his flesh and bones but his incredible power of thought.

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.

Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone… Bad food is fake food… food that shows fear and lack of confidence in people’s ability to discern or to make decisions about their lives.

I don’t really know that much about love, it turns out.

Well, the future for me is already a thing of the past.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

I’m trying to throw a big broad net to try to get people interested in God and believe that He’s for them and has a purpose.

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

There is a ‚sanctity‘ involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it.

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

As I got older, I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

Traveling around the world and preaching for over 70 years did not give much time for reflection.

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.

Love, we say, is life; but love without hope and faith is agonizing death.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live.