To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law – a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security.
I’m not so sure he’s mad, Father. Just a little devious in his sanity.
But neither infinite power nor infinite wisdom could bestow godhood upon men. For that there would have to be infinite love as well.
When Holy Church occasionally hinted that she still considered her authority to be supreme over all nations and superior to the authority of states, men in these times tended to snicker.
Listen, my dear Cors, why don’t you forgive God for allowing pain? If He didn’t allow it, human courage, bravery, nobility, and self-sacrifice would all be meaningless things.
That’s where all of us are standing now, he thought. On the fat kindling of past sins.
Bless me Father, I ate a lizard.
One should be embarrassed to speak of God in the third person.
Speak up, destiny, speak up! Destiny always seems decades away, but suddenly it’s not decades away; it’s right now. But maybe destiny is always right now, right here, right this very instant, maybe.
When you tire of living, change itself seems evil, does it not? for then any change at all disturbs the deathlike peace of the life-weary.
Because a doubt is not a denial. Doubt is a powerful tool, and it should be applied to history.
Ask for an omen, then stone it when it comes – de essentia hominum.
The trouble with being a priest was that you eventually had to take the advice you gave to others.
Men must fumble awhile with error to separate it from truth, I think- as long as they don’t seize the error hungrily because it has a pleasanter taste.
It is said that water is for cattle and farmers, that milk is for children and blood for men.
Soon the sun will set’- is that prophecy? No, it’s merely an assertion of faith in the consistency of events.