The occasional, often ill-considered thoughts of a Roman Catholic permanent deacon who is ever grateful to God for his existence. Despite the strangeness we encounter in this life, all the suffering we witness and endure, being is good, so good I am sometimes unable to contain my joy. Deo gratias!


Although I am an ordained deacon of the Catholic Church, the opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions. In offering these personal opinions I am not acting as a representative of the Church or any Church organization.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A Few Favorites

The following are a few of my favorite quotes, words of wisdom that seem to be particularly relevant today. I've repeated a few by memory and so they may not be word-for-word accurate, but they're close enough to the original to make the point.

"Giving money and power to politicians is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P. J. O'Rourke

"Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production." - Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." -- William F. Buckley

"The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right." - G. K. Chesterton

"Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God." - G. K. Chesterton

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

“Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion.” - Richard John Neuhaus

“The job of the university is giving students a clear, solid, organic knowledge of Catholic doctrine based on Holy Scripture. They are places where churches must mobilize resources...” - Avery Cardinal Dulles

"I did not expect it at all because for me it is evident that we come from the roots of Israel and that their Bible is our Bible and that Judaism is not just one of many religions, but is the foundation, the root of our faith. We share the faith of Abraham." - Pope Benedict XVI

“God is not solitude, but perfect communion. For this reason the human person, the image of God, realizes himself or herself in love, which is a sincere gift of self." - Pope Benedict XVI

"Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language." - Hilaire Belloc

1 comment:

  1. Great ones! One of these days I'm going to write an article about how what is missing from the Social Encyclicals is citation of Lord Acton: the 20th Century social encyclicals are way too trusting of temporal power for a Church that teaches Original Sin.

    I love the Chesterton quotation about being found difficult and not tried. I link on my blog a Catholic cartoonist named Luis Escobar. I discovered him through a cartoon he did on confession.

    A guy's complaining about his problems. A psychiatrist says, "I can solve your problems with therapy! It'll just cost you $5,000."
    The guy is disappointed . A priest says, "I can solve your problems for free! Just go to Confession!"
    The guy says, "Really? Free?"
    "Yep ! All you need to do is repent and change your ways."
    "Repent? Change my ways. Hey, Doc! That $5,000 for therapy sounds like a great deal after all!"

    ReplyDelete