They are idols of hearts and of households; They are angels of God in disguise; His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, His glory still gleams in their eyes; Those truants from home and from Heaven They have made me more manly and mild; And I know now how Jesus could liken The kingdom of God to a child.

We probably have a greater love for those we support than for those who support us. Our vanity carries greater weight than our self-interest.

Continuing a series on the church: By God's grace we live in a time of rediscovery of the Church and of the wholeness of the Church. We see more clearly than often has been the case that ecclesiology and christology are one. The ekklesia, the community of believers, has as its first and foremost qualification that it is that community which, as community, belongs to Christ and is in Christ, and as such is the sphere of God's salvation, redemption, and reconciliation, and of Christ's rulership. This is the archetypal reality of the Church. To see and seize this essential point is a great blessing. This blessing, however, could as well become a curse, if it remained a theme of theological meditation and self-contemplation. This new knowledge is not real knowledge if it is not accompanied by a horror about the alienation of the empirical Church from its own fundamental reality and by a deep longing for a tangible manifestation of the Church's true nature. This horror and this longing are the deeper motives which are operating in many of the events and passionate discussions around the place and responsibility of the laity as an organic part of the Church.

Blind zeal can only do harm.

Rare is the person who can weigh the faults of others without putting his thumb on the scales.

If all else fails, read the directions.

I was learning the importance of names -- having them, making them --but at the same time I sensed the dangers. Recognition was followed by oblivion, a yawning maw whose victims disappeared without a trace.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen.

Anger is what makes a clear mind seem clouded.

An ill wind that bloweth no man good-- The blower of which blast is she.

I think of the garden after the rain; And hope to my heart comes singing, "At morn the cherry-blooms will be white, And the Easter bells be ringing!"

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

Losing doesn't eat at me the way it used to. I just get ready for the next play, the next game, the next season.

If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say, I love her for her smile . . . her look . . . her way Of speaking gently . . . for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and, certes, brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day- For these things in themselves, Beloved, may be changed, or change for thee- and love so wrought, May be unwrought so.

I do not know how to distinguish between our waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

When clouds are seen wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall then winter is at hand.

When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.