The wise man does not permit himself to set up even in his own mind any comparisons of his friends. His friendship is capable of going to extremes with many people, evoked as it is by many qualities.

Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597 The man who will and can go to our Lord in all freedom... must be such that his love for the Sacrament and for our Lord grows more and more by this [Holy Communion], and that the reverence is not diminished by frequently approaching it. For often what is one man's life may be another's death. Therefore you should observe yourself, whether your love for God is growing and your reverence is not destroyed. Then, the more frequently you go to the Sacrament, the better you will become, and the better and more profitable it will be. And therefore be not turned away from your God by words and sermons.

A healthy appetite for righteousness, kept in due control by good manners, is an excellent thing; but to "hunger and thirst" after it is often merely a symptom of spiritual diabetes.

He hath eaten me out of house and home. -King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.

If you make a habit of buying things you do not need, you will soon be selling things you do.

Helpless, unknown, and unremembered, most human beings, however sensitive, idealistic, intelligent, go through life as passengers rather than chauffeurs. Although we may pretend that it is the chauffeur who is the social inferior, most of us, like Toad of Toad Hall, would not mind a turn at the wheel ourselves.

No more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me! -King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing. -George Bernard Shaw.

Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly.

Thy spirit, Independence, let me share! Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye, Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

He play'd an ancient ditty long since mute, In Provence call'd, "La belle dame sans merci."

I can get more out of God by believing Him for one minute than by shouting at Him all night.

The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely.

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself. -Tom Wilson.

The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbour.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.

We cannot find in the Old Testament the fondly drawn distinction of our latter days between the natural and the supernatural, for the whole of the natural order is so directly linked with God that its conservation must be regarded as a kind of continuous creation, quite as dependent on God's creative Word as when first the heavens and the earth were made.