Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these help instead of hinder, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

My mother said to me, "If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope." Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.

Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970 Religion is the same that ever it was, only it suffers by them that make profession of it. Never was there less regard for the Person and offices of Christ, of His grace, and of the benefits of His mediation, among them that are called Christians, than is found among many at this day.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

For a long time it has seemed to me that life was about to begin; Real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.

No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.

The "now" wherein God made the first man, and the "now" wherein the last man disappears, and the "now" I am speaking in, all are the same in God, where this is but the now.

You can talk to a fade but a hook won't listen.

There's some are fou o' love divine, There's some are fou' o' brandy.

Ingratitude's a weed of every clime, It thrives too fast at first, but fades in time.

The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n nature warm; The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate, Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

My tables--meet it is I set it down That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.

The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

Education is the process of driving a set of prejudices down your throat.

Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 I am quite prepared to promise the secularists secular education if they on their side will promise not to have moral instruction. Secular education seems to me intellectually clean and comprehensible. Moral instruction seems to me unclean, intolerable; I would destroy it with fire. Teaching the Old Testament by itself means teaching ancient Hebrew ethics, which are simple, barbaric rudimentary, and, to a Christian, unsatisfying. Teaching moral instruction means teaching modern London, Birmingham and Boston ethics, which are not barbaric and rudimentary, but are corrupt, hysterical and crawling with worms, and which are to a Christian, not unsatisfying but detestable. The old Jew who says that you must fight only for your tribe is inadequate; but the modern prig who says you must never fight for anything is substantially and specifically immoral. I know quite well, of course, that the unreligious ethics suggested for modern schools do not verbally assert these things; they only talk about peaceful reform, true Christianity, and the importance of Count Tolstoy. It is all a matter of tone and implication--but then, so is all teaching. Education is implication. It is not the things you say which children respect; when you say things, they very commonly laugh and do the opposite. It is the things you assume that really sink into them. It is the things you forget even to teach that they learn.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings! He, too, is no mean preacher: Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.

At land indeed Thou dost o'ercount me of my father's house: But since the cuckoo builds not for himself, Remain in't as thou mayst.

He who survives will see the outcome.