We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.

You must strive to multiply bread so that it suffices for the tables of mankind, and not rather favor an artificial control of birth, which would be irrational, in order to diminish the number of guests at the banquet of life.

Failing to be there when a man wants her is a woman’s greatest sin, except to be there when he doesn’t want her.

A dimple on the chin, the devil within.

Nothing makes one feel so strong as a call for help.

We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.

I met a hundred men going to Delhi and everyone is my brother.

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.

Are there memories left that are safe from the clutches of phony anniversaries?

The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.

Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp’s nest.

Liturgy is like a strong tree whose beauty is derived from the continuous renewal of its leaves, but whose strength comes from the old trunk, with solid roots in the ground.

No more war! Never again war! If you wish to be brothers, drop your weapons.

The Eucharistic mystery stands at the heart and center of the liturgy since it is the fount of life by which we are cleansed and strengthened to live not for ourselves but for God and to be united in love among ourselves.

Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land. She prepares a world she will not see.

The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune.

Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.

Physics does not change the nature of the world it studies, and no science of behavior can change the essential nature of man, even though both sciences yield technologies with a vast power to manipulate the subject matters.

Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy.

Never give advice in a crowd.

Never reach out your hand unless you’re willing to extend an arm.

If you want peace work for justice.

In youth the days are short and the years are long. In old age the years are short and day’s long.

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.

Of all human activities, man’s listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.

Think how many blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretions of other people.