Great Throughts Treasury

"Congreve, William Congreve - Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing and the overtaking and possessing of a wish, discovers the folly of the chase."

"We often hear it said: “If God existed there would be no wars.” But it would be truer to say: If God’s laws were observed there would be no wars."

"It is in suffering that we are withdrawn from the bright superficial film of existence, from the sway of time and mere things, and find ourselves in the presence of a profounder truth."

"The announcement of the Council aroused great interest and great hope. It seemed that, after the stifling regime of Pius XII, the windows were at last being opened; one could breathe. The Church was being given its chance. One was becoming open to dialogue...Personally, I very quickly and repeatedly felt deceived because, although Pope John XXIII spoke and acted extremely sympathetically, his decisions, his government, belied much of what had aroused hope. His human style was warm and friendly, Christian. Everything connected with him personally had rescued us from the horrible satrapism of Pius XII. However, he had retained almost all of his predecessors personnel:.. not all of the prelates. But all the others: Cardinals Tardini and Ottaviani were his close advisors. The Pope had recalled Mgr Parente to Rome and had given him an important job at the Holy Office. Parente, the man who condemned P Chenu, the fascist, the monophysite... I never hoped for great things from that quarter. But one had a clear impression that in Rome, the ‘old guard’ in the Curia felt that is was in danger and was doing all in its power to avoid it, while at the same time playing along with the new pontificate since a NEW pontificate was what they were faced with. The danger was that some of the reins of government were slipping away from them."

"God has fulfilled me. He has given me gifts in profusion, infinitely more than my literally nonexistent merits deserve."

"Truth is symphonic."