Character
"The measure of a man's character can be gauged by how he handles success and power. While there are trials peculiar to adversity, there are temptations perilous in prosperity. Some amount of failure and adversity is the lot of every man.... How a man uses his position of influence says as much, if not more, about his character, than how he responds to struggles and setbacks. If he overcomes the trials of adversity he must face the even greater trials of success. ... We confuse the shadow for the substance when we imagine that fame and power are traits of a great leader. Fame has been given to fools, and power to tyrants. Rather, the real test of greatness is not whether a man possesses fame or power, but how he employs them."Give Me Liberty: The Uncompromising Statesmanship of Patrick Henry
to topChristian
"Christian: One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual need of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin." The Devil's Dictionary
"The Holy Book of the living God suffers more from its exponents today than from its opponents."Why Revival Tarries
to topCourage
"There's always time. . .to own up to things you're ashamed of, to change them. There's always time to start. And I think the starting is the most important thing. It takes courage. It takes a lot more courage than any vain feat of arms, let me tell you. It takes a lifetime to become a fool, and only a moment to begin to become wise."The Shepherd Kings
"There are no brave men and cowardly men in the world, my son. There are only brave men. To be born, to live, to die -- that takes courage enough in itself, and more than enough. We are all brave men, and we are all afraid, and what the world calls a brave man, he, too, is brave and afraid like all the rest of us. Only he is brave for five minutes longer. Or sometimes ten minutes, or twenty minutes. . ."The Guns of Navarone
"...courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky."The Screwtape Letters
"A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise, as if dissent were somehow sinister. One should not be cowed by criticism."
"In my humble opinion, those who come to engage in debates of consequence, and who challenge accepted wisdom, should expect to be treated badly. Nonetheless, they must stand undaunted. That is required. And that should be expected. For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom."Speech at the American Enterprise Institute, May 2001
to topFaith
"I don't think God cares so much how big our faith is, but whether we are willing to trust Him the little bit we are able. A little faith put to use is much better than a big faith sitting on the shelf doing nothing. No, I think we all have plenty of faith if we'll just put it to work."Flight from Stonewyck
to topFreedom
". . .nothing is more important than freedom. Nothing is more sacred than freedom. Nothing is greater than freedom. Nothing. . .can be permitted to stand in the way of freedom. Freedom. . .is all that makes men great. It is all men have to live for. Without freedom, what good is life?" A Shade of Difference
"To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man."The Social Contract
"The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned, the compact, liberal majority."An Enemy of the People, Act 4
to topGod
"To be with God is really to be involved in some enormous, overwhelming desire, and joy, and power which you cannot control, which controls you."Nobody Knows my Name
"Drummed into me from an early age was the fact that God was the Father, which led to my thinking of God as somebody home only at the weekends. Thinking about God as a Father also meant thinking of Him as a distant sort, One who wasn't to be disturbed because He was busy. One who has concerned with rules and punishments, and One having a short temper."To Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful
"If you lose your reason, you lose it into the hands of God....It’s the only place where anything is safe. And when you’re dead it’s only what’s there you’ll have. Nothing else."The Scent of Water
"Loving God isn't any different from loving a man -- or a child. It's wanting to be with Him, to be near Him....It's wanting to protect Him from yourself."The Power and the Glory
"I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know God's thoughts, the rest are details."Physics and Reality
"Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."Notes on Virginia, 1784
"...a man cannot by the craft and flattery of his tongue lay hold of God while his heart is far away. No, for since God is spirit and truth, a man can only draw near to Him by sincerity, by willing to be holy, as He is holy: by purity of heart."
"Father in Heaven! What is man without Thee! What is all that he knows, vast accumulation though it be, but a chipped fragment if he does not know Thee! What is all his striving, could it encompass the World, but a half-finished work if he does not know Thee: Thee the One, who art one thing and who art all!"Purity of Heart
"God is never known incidentally or accidentally. He is known in that He makes Himself known."Special Revelation and the Word of God
"Cure yourself of the condition of bothering about how you look to other people. Be concerned only with how you appear to God, with the idea God has of you."Life of Don Quixote and Sancho
to topHatred
"I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I resolved then that I would permit no man, no matter what his color, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him." Up From Slavery
to topHell
"I know what hell is now... It is the total absence of God. It is a hell beyond endurance-- this separation of the soul from God."Grandmother and the Priests
to topIslam
"When George Washington wrote to the Newport Synagogue. . .he told those Jews that they enjoyed the free exercise of religion in America, not on the basis of mere toleration, but on the basis of natural right--the right to life in the fullest sense. In contrast. . .the Islamic law. . .offers Jews and Christians toleration, not on the basis of the natural right to life, but on the basis of the right to kill. That is, in the status of dhimmitude, non-Muslims may live only on condition of strict subordination, enforceable by death. Exclusion from citizenship is the price of survival. A full life may only be lived if you believe rightly, and not because, as a human being, you are entitled to such a life, regardless of your religious beliefs." Imprimis, October 2002
to topJustice
"One of the things you learn early in life is that there's only one thing really worth having, and that's love. Well, by the same token, there's only one thing worth fighting for, and that is justice."The Bear and the Dragon
"Without justice even mercy becomes a hollow mockery." Final Verdict
to topMan
"That's what being a man is all about, boy. It's just doing what's got to be done."A Day No Pigs Would Die
to topPrayer
"We do not pray for immortality...but only not to see our acts and all things stripped suddenly of all their meaning; for then it is the utter emptiness of everything reveals itself."Night Flight
"...your God is a trinity. There are three necessary prayers and they have three words each. They are these, 'Lord, have mercy. Thee I adore. Into Thy hands.' Not difficult to remember. If in times of distress you hold to these, you will do well."The Scent of Water
"Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask."Encounter Weekly, 1996
"Prayer is either a sheer illusion or a personal contact between embryonic, incomplete persons (ourselves) and the utterly concrete Person. Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. In it God shows Himself to us."The Efficacy of Prayer
to topReligion
"...when men ignite in their hearts a religious fury, they inflict at the same time a blindness on their eyes."The Source
to topSaints
"Saints rarely have friends; they are usually hated and derided, for they love and love is always rejected by hard-hearted men....saints do not advertise themselves; good men do not seek out a name in the world....the saints did what they did almost in stealth, asking nothing except that men love God." Grandmother and the Priests
to topSorrow
"I walked a mile with Pleasure
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow
And ne'er a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me."
Suffering
"If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete."Man’s Search for Meaning
"As long as one can suffer, one is living....live and suffer until life is gone."Maggie-Now
"...the face of destiny or luck or God that gives us war also gives other kinds of pain: the loss of health and youth, the loss of loved ones, the fear that we will end our days alone. Some people suffer in peace the way others suffer in war. The special gift of that suffering...is how to be strong while we are weak, how to be brave when we are afraid, how to be wise in the mist of confusion, and how to let go of that which we can no longer hold. In this way, anger can teach forgiveness, hate can teach us love, and war can teach us peace."When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
"Not a day passes over the earth but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows."The Cloister and the Hearth
to topTruth
"...it usually better to act on the basis of what is true, rather than to maintain, with the best will in the world, that what is true has no right to be so."Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women
"Truth has always had many loud proclaimers, but the question is whether a person will in the deepest sense acknowledge the truth, allow it to permeate his whole being, accept all its consequences, and not have an emergency hiding place for himself and a Judas kiss for the consequence."Provocations
"In the mountains of truth you never climb in vain."Thus Spake Zarathustra
"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."A Time for Greatness
"Truth is a funny thing. Many want to be known as followers of the truth, but that same many subconsciously hope to avoid the consequences of catching it. To apprehend the truth is to be changed into something we could never have imagined in the fog of our delusions. It takes true abandonment to faith in the Spirit of Truth to finally become conformed to His image. Having a vested interest in what the truth is always leads you to bow before your own image as you peer into that glass darkly. There is no substitute for taking up the cross that kills all ambition and self seeking and following that One who said, "I AM the Truth!" To fall short of this walk is to be forever caught in the lie."Letter to a friend, June 2002
"Just remember this, my girl. When you look up in the sky, you can see the stars and still not see the light."I'm Already Gone
". . .the larger the crowd, the more probable that that which it praises is folly, and the more improbable that it is truth; and the most improbable of all that it is any eternal truth."Purity of Heart
". . .in the matter of a difficult question it is more likely that the truth should have been discovered by the few than by the many." Rules
"No doubt the truth is hard to come by for those who do not like the sound of it -- dreams and illusions are so much more pleasant."I Was an NKVD Agent
"If you don't believe something is true, you won't believe something is right. If your epistemology is gone, your ethics will soon follow. If you have principles, then you have specifics; without principles you have nothing."lecture to Epistemology class at Seattle Pacific University, 1967
"The truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Little men are dissolved in it. If there is any gold, truth makes it shine more brightly. . . .Truth, even in the mouth of an informer, a spy, a briber, can become bigger than anybody who tries to destroy it. Truth survives." Final Verdict
"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." Marriage and Morals
"He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers."Provincial Letter
to topWar
"People who make war in order to escape slavery may possibly win....This will doubtless bring death and suffering to thousands....But people who tamely allow slavery to be imposed on them without resorting to a defensive war are inevitably doomed to years of death and suffering--and far more of each than any war would bring to them....The army doesn't exist that can annihilate men in their own land--not if they love it sufficiently."Lydia Bailey
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