Men have never been individually self-sufficient.
All known existence points beyond itself.
The dimension of depth in the consciousness of religion creates the tension between what is and what ought to be. It bends the bow from which every arrow of moral action flies.
The essence of man is his freedom. Sin is committed in that freedom. Sin can therefore not be attributed to a defect in his essence. It can only be understood as a self-contradiction, made possible by the fact of his freedom but not following necessarily from it.
The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; while, among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone.
There is no social evil, no form of injustice whether of the feudal or the capitalist order which has not been sanctified in some way or other by religious sentiment and thereby rendered more impervious to change.
Toleration of people who differ in convictions and habits requires a residual awareness of the complexity of truth and the possibility of opposing view having some light on one or the other facet of a many-sided truth.
Better not read books in which you make acquaintance of the devil.
We have previously suggested that philanthropy combines genuine pity with the display of power and that the latter element explains why the powerful are more inclined to be generous than to grant social justice.
Man is his own most vexing problem.
God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.
Aim for the stars and maybe you’ll reach the sky.
The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men.
A genuine faith resolves the mystery of life by the mystery of God.
The individual or the group which organizes any society, however social its intentions or pretensions, arrogates an inordinate portion of social privilege to itself.
Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life.
Reason tends to check selfish impulses and to grant the satisfaction of legitimate impulses in others.
This insinuation of the interests of the self into even the most ideal enterprises and most universal objectives, envisaged in moments of highest rationality, makes hypocrisy an inevitable by product of all virtuous endeavor.
To be religious is not to feel, but to be.
Man is always worse than most people suspect, but also generally better than most people dream.