Kyrie Eleison: July 2006

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Below is the list of quotes that appear in my sidebar. If you have any you think I would be interested in, I'd love to take a look. I do like to collect a good quote. Just add it in a comment. If I agree it should be up, I'll add it to the list.

The items are not in any particular order, but they are grouped by author.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.. -Albert Einstein

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. -Albert Einstein

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs. -Albert Einstein

When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about. -Albert Einstein

One must not delude oneself: Whoever undertakes the project of performing a work of God directly aimed against all Hell must expect to be opposed by men, by disappointment and by the spirit of darkness. -Blessed Melanie Calvat

To Dissenting Priests "It is your duty to fix the lines (of doctrine) clearly in your minds: and if you wish to go beyond them you must change your profession. This is your duty not specially as Christians or as priests but as honest men." -C.S. Lewis

He, therefore, is orthodox, whose faith coincides with the teachings of the Catholic Church.. -Catholic Encyclopedia

Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.-G. K. Chesterton

The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.-G. K. Chesterton

He is a [sane] man who can have tragedy in his heart and comedy in his head.-G. K. Chesterton

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.-G. K. Chesterton

Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it.-G. K. Chesterton

The only defensible war is a war of defense.-G. K. Chesterton

The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.-G. K. Chesterton

I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.-G. K. Chesterton

Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men.-G. K. Chesterton

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.-G. K. Chesterton

There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.-G. K. Chesterton

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.-G. K. Chesterton

The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.-G. K. Chesterton

Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks.-G. K. Chesterton

Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.-G. K. Chesterton

The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly.-G. K. Chesterton

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.-G. K. Chesterton

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it. -G. K. Chesterton

I have never heard anything about the resolutions of the apostles, but a good deal about their acts. -Horace Mann

WE can die from the "LESSER EVIL". The lesser evil can be the worst evil of all. It is effacement, abdication, an accommodating attitude towards the wicked -M. Piou

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. -Mark Twain

Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. -Mark Twain

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable. -Mark Twain

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with. -Mark Twain

I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't. -Mark Twain

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. -Mark Twain

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. -Mark Twain

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. -Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. -Mark Twain

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. -Mark Twain

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. -Mark Twain

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. -Mark Twain

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. -Mark Twain

Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we have expressed them to someone else. -Mark Twain

How little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it. -Mark Twain

Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen. -Peter Marshall

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune. -Plutarch

An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties. -Pope Benedict XVI

Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, look like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. -Pope Benedict XVI

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. There may be legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not... with regard to abortion and euthanasia. -Pope Benedict XVI

The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, fínds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. -Pope John Paul II

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought. -Pope John Paul II

Love is never defeated, and I could add, the history of Ireland proves it. -Pope John Paul II

Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family - a domestic church -Pope John Paul II

Modern Society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyles. -Pope John Paul II

The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery. -Pope John Paul II

Radical changes in world politics leave America with a heightened responsibility to be, for the world, an example of a genuinely free, democratic, just and humane society. -Pope John Paul II

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. -Pope John Paul II

Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it. -Pope John Paul II

The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish. -Pope John Paul II

To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others. -Pope John Paul II

Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore... prove ultimately futile. -Pope John Paul II

When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society. -Pope John Paul II

When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ, who gives you the meaning of life. When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ, who is the fulfillness of humanity. And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world look to Christ. -Pope John Paul II

You are priests, not social or political leaders. Let us not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel through an exaggerated interest in the wide field of temporal problems. -Pope John Paul II

Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire. -Pope John Paul II

IT is better that scandal should occur than to hide the truth. -Pope St. Gregory the Great

In the gay (Catholic) community, it would seem, the maxim is: love the sin and love the sinner, but hate anyone who calls it a sin or him a sinner. -Richard John Neuhaus

The vicissitudes of history, however, have not dissuaded them from their earnest search for a "third way" between socialism and capitalism, namely socialism. -Richard John Neuhaus

Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked. -St. Augustine

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -St. Augustine

I Brother Francis send wishes of health to Brother Anthony, my bishop. It pleases me that you teach sacred theology to the brothers, as long as in the words of the Rule you "do not extinguish the Spirit of prayer and devotion" with study of this kind. -St. Francis of Assisi

We must hope in God all the more when things seem more desperate; when human help fails, Divine help is not far away. -St. Ignatius Loyola

Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that. -St. John Vianney

I want you to be happy on earth. And you will not be happy if you don't lose that fear of suffering. For, as long as we are 'wayfarers', it is precisely in suffering that our happiness lies.-St. Josemaria Escriva

It is the hungry man's bread that you withhold, the naked man's cloak that you store away, the money that you bury in the earth is the price of the poor man's ransom and freedom. -St. Thomas Aquinas

Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious. -St. Thomas Aquinas

By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments. -St. Thomas Aquinas

This life is much too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end of it and then be asked what you make of it and have to answer, "Scientific humanism." -Walker Percy

Action is eloquence. -William Shakespeare

Be great in act, as you have been in thought. -William Shakespeare

God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, love, charity, obedience, and true duty! -William Shakespeare

He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself. -William Shakespeare

I am not bound to please thee with my answers. -William Shakespeare

It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after. -William Shakespeare

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. -William Shakespeare

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. -William Shakespeare

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. -William Shakespeare

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet. -William Shakespeare

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.-William Shakespeare

O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do! -William Shakespeare