While I am in the thick of things -working on a project that needs some prayers and more genius than we have around this place- enjoy the beautiful mums photographed by Ann Althouse, and a few pithy quotes. Perhaps one will seem meant for you to think on, like Lectio!
From G.K. Chesterton:
1) You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.
2) If you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.
3) People who make history know nothing about history; you can see that in the sort of history they make.
4) Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong. It means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.
5) The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.
From C.S. Lewis
1) God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
2) If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
3) The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.
4) Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.
5) No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
From Oscar Wilde:
1) Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
2) Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
3) Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
4) Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons.
5) When you really want love, you will find it waiting for you.
Lovely quotes. Thank you for sharing.
The C.S. Lewis quote “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear” is an interesting quote. I’m sure I am missing something or lack understanding.
For the longest time I feared my father’s passing thinking that it would be hard for me to handle. He died earlier this year and while I am still working through all the ‘issues’ (real and imagined) that I had with him, it is not fear I am feeling, but rather a sense of peace and acceptance as I attempt to come to an understanding of how all the piece parts of life fit together.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by New Advent and SandyWatsey. SandyWatsey said: A few quotes to ponder » The Anchoress | A First Things Blog http://tinyurl.com/yzt3rp9 [...]
Thank you for the quotes. Good material for a grey, thoughtful Sunday morning.
Very nice. I especially like CS Lewis #2 and Wilde #s 1 & 3
I threw the Wilde quote about fairness at my 9 year old this weekend.
For myself, I probably need to ponder Lewis on suffering. I am fortunate in how little I have suffered, even having a special needs child.
Well, you should be glad that you’re not feeling the fearful sort of grief — the sort when you suddenly realize down in your gut that the Joe-Bob Briggs rule for horror movies (“Anyone can die at any time for any reason”) is actually in force for your loved ones, in real life. And for you.
I have felt that kind of grief, and don’t recommend it. Not fun, no.
I’m still meditating on the quote you posted from the Byzantine Daily Worship, “… By God’s plan, death that had come from a tree would be conquered by a tree, and suffering would be healed by the suffering of the Lord….”
I understand for the first time the mystery and beauty of forgiving and blessing, and the spiritual symmetry involved. I’ve done it out of obedience for so many years, but never fully understood the power and impact it had in the spiritual realm – how humbling that He invites us to partner with Him in canceling curses by blessing; that our forgiving betrayal, insults and rejection is to actually fellowship with His suffering on the cross.
I actually embrace forgiveness and blessing now, where before there was a humiliating element to it and left me feeling vulnerable and small. It’s so simple now and freeing.
Thank you for posting these wonderful quotes.
As for the fear-grief link… Deacon Greg posted this yesterday. It’s from Jeanne Jugan, foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, who was canonized today.
Sorry about the formatting — I put in a second blockquote command rather than closing the first, so the second indent should actually be an outdent.
(Anchoress, you need a preview button!)
My favorite one from Oscar Wilde:
Thirty years of romance and a woman looks like a ruin. Thirty years of marriage and she looks like a public building.
Nearly one in four persons on globe is Muslim
Quite worrying- I find it concerning that they have so many children & show few if any signs of limiting their fertility. Although some Muslims are liberal, & we should work with more liberal elements, the direction of travel is the wrong one & the liberals know it.
For the world’s sake, some way has to be found of getting material prosperity & education to these countries. Only then will they calm down.
“Quite worrying- I find it concerning that they have so many children & show few if any signs of limiting their fertility.”
This is not just a matter of fertility. Islam’s growth is also due to a great deal of voluntary conversion. The second C.S.Lewis quotation is relevant here: Christianity is a far less dynamic religion than it used to be and has lost significant ground in Europe which is its real cradle rather than Palestine. All of Islam is still oriented toward Mecca.
And secularism grows only by default. There really have never been anything like secular missionaries. Nobody who is secular cares enough to spread it. Christians in America should consider this fact carefully, and the fact that the fastest growing religious choice in America is that of complete indifference to religious views of any kind–even atheism and agnosticism.
Conservative Christians, particularly, have talked themselves into overt and explicitly solicited opposition to secular people and secular views. Given the demographics here, nothing is more likely to insure the continued religious decline.
To Joe Marshall -
Public building, indeed! And let me tell you, we feel like one, too!
thank you, Anchoress, and thank you, Dee, for your thoughtful observations. I needed to see that about Sister Jeanne, and I needed to read “that He invites us to partner with Him in canceling curses by blessing; that our forgiving betrayal, insults and rejection is to actually fellowship with His suffering on the cross.”
[...] The Anchoress has a few quotes to ponder, and Iowahawk’s Dashiell Hammett tale takes a Twilight Zone turn. [...]
The world’s first terrrrsts