"Mystics know that posessions dissipate the energy which they need for other and more real things; that they must give up ownership, the verb 'to have,' if they are to attain the freedom which they seek, and the fullness of the verb 'to be.'."

- Evelyn Underhill

Looking foolish does the spirit good. The need not to look foolish is one of youth's many burdens; as we get older we are exempted from more and more, and float upward in our heedlessness, singing Gratia Dei sum quod sum.

--John Updike

("Gratia Dei sum quid sum" = "By the grace of God, I am what I am" - translation courtesy of Matthew Hoskin.)

"...it fell from the sky"

My neice Renee's explanation of where the star shaped flower she found came from.

If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and story-tellers could interpret. Then people like you would have to go to public halls and pay good prices to hear the professionals decode and read the books aloud for you. This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors and I-Married-a-Midget writers who would not have the patience to learn the secret language.

--Robertson Davies

"So you have failed? You cannot fail. You have not failed; you have gained experience. Forward!"

- Saint Josemaria Escriva

I take advice like margaritas: with a heavy grain of salt.
--Joel Plaskett ("Lying on a Beach")

"Perfect love is to love the one who made you unhappy."

Soren Kierkegaard

"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."

--Bob Marley, Trench Town Rock

I'm open to any idea or suggestion that will help us achieve our goals of defeating the terrorists and ensuring that Iraq's democratic government succeeds

George Bush

"Well, he's sort of Jesus-shaped."

- The Bishop of Horsham, responding to Ali G's question "What does God look like?"