Truly unexpected tidings make both ears tingle.

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.

If every man took only what was sufficient for his needs, leaving the rest to those in want, there would be no rich and no poor.

He who plants kindness gathers love.

The hairsplitting difference between formed and unformed makes no difference to us. Whoever deliberately commits abortion is subject to the penalty for homicide.

It is not he who begins well who is perfect. It is he who ends well who is approved in God's sight.

We need not only read Sacred Scripture, but learn it as well and grow up in it. Realize that nothing is written in Scripture unnecessarily. Not to read Sacred Scripture is a great evil.

The human being is an animal who has received the vocation to become God.

There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside.

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.

Every divine action begins from the Father, proceeds through the Son, and is completed in the Holy Spirit.

mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy

Without her, part of my soul was missing. My heart had left with her, when she moved with Henry here, putting half the planet between us, making me wait for the rare phone calls.

We learned many years ago that the rich may have money, but the poor have time.

Old men, for the most part, are like old chronicles that give you dull but true accounts of times past, and are worth knowing only on that score.

Our policemen and women are disrespected. We need law and order, but we need justice, too.

I don't give up because I don't give up. I don't believe in it.

To be honest, I wrote so many drafts of this book [ The Nightingale ] and changed the characters so many times; the real surprise is that I finished the book at all.

I kind of strive for being able to go home and having a totally separate life.

We approach the divine by enlarging our souls and lighting up our brains.

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare.