Day! Faster and more fast, O'er night's brim, day boils at last; Boils, pure gold, o'er the cloud-cup's brim.

Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675 Most Christians would agree with C. S. Lewis when he says [of the doctrine of the Final Judgment], "There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power". But we cannot do so, for two reasons: first, because it enjoys the full support of Christ's own teaching; and second, because it makes a good deal of sense. If the gospel is extended to us for our acceptance, it must be possible also to reject and refuse it. The alternative would be for God to compel an affirmative response. It would be nice to be able to say that all will be saved, but the question arises, Does everyone want to be saved? What would love for God be like if it were coerced? There is a hell because God respects our freedom and takes our decisions seriously -- more seriously, perhaps, than we would sometimes wish. God wants to see hell completely empty; but if it is not, He cannot be blamed. The door is locked only on the inside. It is not Christians but the unrepentant who "want" it [to be locked].

If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.

Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.

There is something more horrible than hoodlums, churls and vipers, and that is knaves with moral justification for their cause.

How much does great prosperity overspread the mind with darkness.

It seems that nothing ever gets to going good till there's a few resignations.

Some have meat but cannot eat; Some could eat but have no meat; We have meat and can all eat; Blest, therefore, be God for our meat.

True friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like autumn leaves, scattered everywhere.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

And the wind that saddens, the sea that gladdens, Are singing the selfsame strain.

Read but o'er the Stories Of men most fam'd for courage or for counsaile And you shall find that the desire of glory Was the last frailty wise men put of; Be they presidents.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.

If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater the effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders -- what would you tell him to do? I don't know. What could he do? What would you tell him? To shrug.

Now, blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep! it covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap; and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even. There is only one thing, which somebody once put into my head, that I dislike in sleep; it is, that it resembles death; there is very little difference between a man in his first sleep, and a man in his last sleep.

To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be. -Anna Louise Strong.

I don't generally feel anything until noon, then it's time for my nap.

To get to know a country, you must have direct contact with the earth. It's futile to gaze at the world through a car window.

Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby.

Some people weave burlap into the fabric of our lives, and some weave gold thread. Both contribute to make the whole picture beautiful and unique.