1) “If we find ourselves with a
desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is
that we were made for another world.”
2) “I didn’t go to religion to make
me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion
to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
3) “There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
4) “The Christian does not think
God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He
loves us.”
5) “God can’t give us peace and
happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.”
6) “A man can no more diminish
God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by
scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
7) “It would seem that Our Lord
finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,
like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he
cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”
8) “True humility is not thinking
less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
9) “Human history is the long
terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make
him happy.”
10) “A silly idea is current that
good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only
those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who gives in to
temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like
an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about
badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.”
11) “Die before you die, there is
no chance after.”
12) “No man knows how bad he is
till he has tried very hard to be good.”
13) “Aim at Heaven and you will
get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”
14) “Progress means getting
nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then
to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road,
progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in
that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”
15) “Christianity, if false, is
of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot
be is moderately important.”
16) “Everyone thinks forgiveness
is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.”
17) “Love may forgive all
infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will
their removal.”
18) “I know now, Lord, why you
utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die
away. What other answer would suffice?”
19) “God is no fonder of
intellectual slackers than He is of any other slacker.”
