"The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for theologians to swim in without ever reaching the bottom." - St. Jerome

David Bentley Hart: "God is no more likely (and a good deal less likely) to be found in theology than in poetry and fiction."

Tom Clougherty: “The trouble with so much architecture from the post-war period is that the state was the client – architects designed housing projects with little or no concern for the people who would actually live in them. The design of housing estates did not reflect the way people lived, worked and played. Rather, it reflected a utopian socialist ideology which central planners wished to impose upon them. Of course, that attempt failed miserably.”

Christopher Dawson: “A scientific specialist or a technologist is not an educated person. He tends to become merely an instrument of the industrialist or the bureaucrat, a worker ant in an insect society, and the same is true of the literary specialist, though his social function is less obvious.”[25]

"Most of us are not really so arrogant as to think we have a right to remold the world in our image. The best we can do, toward redeeming the states of Europe and Asia from the menace of revolution and the distresses of our time, is to realize our own conservative character, suspicious of doctrinaire alteration, respectful toward history, preferring variety over uniformity, acknowledging a moral order composed of human persons, not of mere political and economic atoms subservient to the state. We have not been appointed the correctors of mankind; but, under God, we may be an example to mankind." - Russell Kirk

"Professors and priests are meant to be the conservators of mankind, to which end they are set among men, reminding us that we are not the flies of a summer. Their labor is to tell men that certain truths endure, that upon human nature a peculiar character has been stamped by the Creator with which we tamper at our peril, and that the complex of ideas and methods which we call civilization cannot subsist without moral sanctions. Priest and professor are meant to show men the mysterious coherence and continuity which binds all things in their places." - Russell Kirk, in 1963

“Every right is married to a duty, every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility.” - Russell Kirk

Renaming

MUMBAI, India (AP) – More than 200 Indian girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Hindi chose new names Saturday for a fresh start in life.

A central Indian district held a renaming ceremony it hopes will give the girls new dignity and help fight widespread gender discrimination that gives India a skewed gender ratio, with far more boys than girls.

The 285 girls — wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair — lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state.

In shedding names like "Nakusa" or "Nakushi," which mean "unwanted" in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars like "Aishwarya" or Hindu goddesses like "Savitri." Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as "Vaishali" or "prosperous, beautiful and good."

"Now in school, my classmates and friends will be calling me this new name, and that makes me very happy," said a 15-year-old girl who had been named Nakusa by a grandfather disappointed by her birth. She chose the new name "Ashmita," which means "very tough" or "rock hard" in Hindi. (more...)

Politics are effective when inspired by selflessness. - unknown

"The boys in Golding’s novel [Lord of the Flies] are not unsupervised. They are absolutely alone. There is no home to go to, no school, no church. There are no adults to turn to, to allay their fears. Death looms nearby. Under such circumstances they naturally form alliances, and those, so far as they are acts of the imagination, are good and natural things. The same may be said for the city gang. It is not that these boys spend too much time outside of the home. It is that they have no genuine home to spend time outside of." - Anthony Esolen in Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

"I read science fiction the way I read cookbooks. I get all the way through, shut the book and say, 'Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen.'"

Seen on T-shirts at a pirate-themed party:
***
Underneath a skull and crossbones: “Nautical Acquisition & Redistribution Specialist”

“The danger of leaving people with doubts they did not previously have is only equal to the danger of leading people to certainties they did not earn.”

"As for Lawrence — on behalf of whom Eliot was a witness at the trial for alleged obscenity in Lady Chatterly’s Lover — 'It would seem that for Lawrence any spiritual force was good, and that evil resided only in the absence of spirituality. . . . The man’s vision is spiritual, but spiritually sick'.” – Russell Kirk, from T. S. Eliot on Literary Morals

"Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society." - St. Francis of Assisi

“Tolkien understands the deepest of our longings and makes us understand them better than before: To have a home. To be expected. To be welcomed from the night into the warm circle of firelight. To be loved and to love. To hold an innocent child and to see the promise of a future in that smiling face.” - Mark T. Mitchell, from The Beauty of Tolkien’s Quest

“Truth comes in two formats: enlightenments and collisions with reality.” - unknown

Amatuers practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.

The theological category of sin has been replaced, in many circles, with the psychological concept of therapy. As Philip Reiff has argued, the “Triumph of the Therapeutic” is now a fixture of modern American culture. Church members may make poor choices, fail to live up to the expectations of an oppressive culture, or be inadequately self-actualized—but they no longer sin. (more...) - Mohler

"The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones." - John Wooden

“Fortitude without justice is a source of evil.” - St. Thomas Aquinas

"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes." - John LeCarre

“God hasn’t given this generation - so accustomed to opinion polls that want to know what we think - the luxury of remaking theology on the fly and redefining the gospel.” - Randy Alcorn

Roman Emperor Julian (the Apostate): "It is [the Christians'] philanthropy toward strangers, the care they take of the graves of the dead, and the affected sanctity with which they conduct their lives that have done [the] most to spread their atheism."

"And what is our purpose in this world? Not to indulge our appetites, but to render obedience to the divine ordinance." - Russell Kirk, from The Conservative Mind

"We can grow good wheat and make good bread only if we understand that we do not live by bread alone." - Wendell Berry

“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.” - unattributed

“Yeah, they’re dating now. But neither of them have changed their status on Facebook, so it’s not ‘official’ yet.”

Mystery

"Common sense does not eschew logic as such. But it does see that at the origin of things is a reality whose ways are not our ways. This is what the mystic also sees. It is the fanatic who does not see this limitation, but chooses rather to follow the logic of his position even when it leads him to absurdity. Things are, and can be known. But likewise things “are not what they seem.” We did not create them and must be prepared to find in them more than we could imagine. Call this mysticism or true philosophy or revelation, it is what we discover when we encounter any thing that is." - James Schall

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it..." - Albert Einstein

"But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint." - Edmund Burke, English statesman, Whig member of Parliament, and grandfather of modern conservatism

"Lincoln was a conservative statesman on the intellectual model of Cicero. In his dignity there was no hubris, no presumption; much, he knew, must be left to Providence." - Russell Kirk

"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil. - CS Lewis

"Things will work out - but I always feel that way after coffee." - Anonymous

"When I am consumed by my problems - stressed out about my life, my family, and my job - I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God's command to always rejoice." - Francis Chan

If any be a devout lover of God,
let him partake with gladness from this fair and radiant feast.
If any be a faithful servant,
let him enter rejoicing into the joy of his Lord.
If any have wearied himself with fasting,
let him now enjoy his reward.
If any have laboured from the first hour,
let him receive today his rightful due.
If any have come after the third,
let him celebrate the feast with thankfulness.
If any have come after the sixth,
let him not be in doubt, for he will suffer no loss.
If any have delayed until the ninth,
let him not hesitate but draw near.
If any have arrived only at the eleventh,
let him not be afraid because he comes so late.

For the Master is generous and accepts the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him who comes at the eleventh hour
in the same was as him who has laboured from the first.
He accepts the deed, and commends the intention.

Enter then, all of you, into the joy of our Lord.
First and last, receive alike your reward.
Rich and poor, dance together.
You who fasted and you who have not fasted, rejoice together.
The table is fully laden: let all enjoy it.
The calf is fatted: let none go away hungry.

Let none lament his poverty;
for the universal Kingdom is revealed.
Let none bewail his transgressions;
for the light of forgiveness has risen from the tomb.
Let none fear death;
for death of the Savour has set us free.

He has destroyed death by undergoing death.
He has despoiled hell by descending into hell.
Hell was filled with bitterness when it met Thee face to face below;
filled with bitterness, for it was brought to nothing;
filled with bitterness, for it was mocked;
filled with bitterness, for it was overthrown;
filled with bitterness, for it was put in chains .
Hell received a body, and encountered God. It received earth, and confronted heaven.
O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?

Christ is risen! And you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is risen! And the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is risen! And the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen! And life is liberated!
Christ is risen! And the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power, now and forever, and from all ages to all ages.
Amen!

John Chrysostom

A Christ-centred worship - which is event-oriented worship - can never be static and merely intellectual because what happens is an actual and real communication of the power and benefit of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Worshiping churches recognize that every gathering of worship is ultimately a praise and thanksgiving for the overthrow of evil by God in Christ. This victory not only happened two thousand years ago, but it happens today in the lives of people who bring to worship their own struggles against that evil which shatters relationships, oppresses the poor, and brings constant dislocation into life. - Robert Webber

Gen. Sir Charles Napier in India, explaining to the locals his position on suttee - the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows.You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

George Orwell, from his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language: “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.”

"What binds society together? The libertarians reply that the cement of society (so far as they will endure any binding at all) is self-interest, closely joined to the nexus of cash payment. But the conservatives declare that society is a community of souls, joining the dead, the living, and those yet unborn; and that it coheres through what Aristotle called friendship and Christians call love of neighbor." - Russell Kirk

Calvin Coolidge, upon leaving the presidency in March 1929: “Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.”

"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today." - Laurence J. Peter

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca

"Genius may have it's limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped." - Elbert Hubbard

"An artist must have the conception of what he intends to make within himself, be it a picture, carving, music or anything else, it must be there in his own mind complete. The making of it in paint or stone or wood or sound is a little image of the Incarnation, the "Word made flesh." When it is made, its validity as a work of art depends upon whether others recognize in it the expression of something that is inarticulate in themselves." - Caryll Houselander

Wife: "Do you have the destruction manual?"
Husband: "Nope, we have kids for that."

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - Martin Luther King Jr.

The duty of the pastor is not to invite his congregation (and certainly not the general public) to join him as he meanders through his own personal journey of self discovery. His duty is to lead people to Jesus Christ. - Matt Kennedy

"I agree Technology is per se neutral: but a race devoted to the increase of its own power by technology with complete indifference to ethics does seem to me a cancer in the Universe. Certainly if he goes on his present course much further man can not be trusted with knowledge." - C. S. Lewis, responding to a letter from Arthur C. Clarke

“As St. Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ..." - G. K. Chesterton

Paula Poundstone: "If we tax the use of the word "like", we could restore the budget surplus."

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity." - W. B. Yeats