Quotes of the Week

The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural use for it. --Simone Weil 10-6-09

The process of living seems to consist in coming to realize truths so ancient and simple that, if stated, they sound like barren platitudes. They cannot sound otherwise to those who have not had the relevant experience: that is why there is no real teaching of such truths possible and every generation starts from scratch. --C.S. Lewis 9-21-09

[God] is not proud...He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him. -- C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain 9-15-09

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. --Helen Keller 9-7-09

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
— Ben Hecht 9-6-09 Of course, nowadays newspapers are little read, and people get their news from TV or the Internet. It's the daily-ness of the news that is not helpful, whatever form it comes in. We need to be looking at trends, rather than news bites and bits, and thinking of how the trends fit into the context of history and tradition, in order to figure out "what is going on in the world," and more importantly, its significance.


Many of the kinds of quotes I like are like little philosophy exercises, brain stretchers. Some are more like meditations that stretch my heart toward my Lord. Some are humorous or ironic expressions of truth. From my large collection I hope to offer a weekly example, with the following recommendations:

"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations... The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more." -Winston Churchill

"I always have a quotation for everything -- it saves original thinking." - D.L. Sayers

"Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again." -Andre Gide