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"The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it. On the contrary, this adds to its beauty. If it altered the movement of its waves to spare a boat, it would [not be] perfectly obedient to every external pressure. It is this perfect obedience that constitutes the sea's beauty."
¶"Men can never escape from obedience to God. A creature cannot but obey. The only choice given to men, as intelligent and free creatures, is to desire obedience or not to desire it."
¶ "God created through love and for love. God did not create anything except love itself and the means to love . . . The implicit love of God can have only three immediate objects . . . religious ceremonies, the beauty of the world, and our neighbor."
¶"In general, making suitable reservations for the treasures that are unknown, little known, or perhaps buried among the forgotten remains of the Middle Ages, we might say that the beauty of the world is almost absent from the Christian tradition. This is strange. It is difficult to understand. It leaves a terrible gap. How can Christianity call itself catholic if the universe itself is left out?" ¶ "He who knows the secrets of all hearts alone knows the secret of the different forms of faith. He has never revealed this secret, whatever anyone may say."
¶"The great error of the Marxists and of all the 19th Century was to believe that by walking straight ahead one had mounted into the air ... We cannot take a single step towards heaven. It is not in our power to travel in a vertical direction." ¶ "The right use of the will is a condition of salvation, necessary no doubt but remote, inferior, very subordinate and very negative. The weeds are pulled up by the muscular effort of the peasant, but only sun and water can make the corn grow. The will cannot produce any good in the soul.. .
"To long for God and to renounce all the rest, that alone can save us."