He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.
In a consumer society, there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
So long as one is able to pose, one still has much to learn about suffering.
A Coke at snack time, a drink before dinner, a cup of coffee after dinner, a cigarette with coffee — very relaxing. Four shots of drugs. Domesticated ones.
To punish drug takers is like a drunk striking the bleary face he sees in the mirror. Drugs will not be brought under control until society itself changes, enabling men to use them as primitive man did: welcoming the visions they provided not as fantasies, but as intimations of a different, and important, level of reality.
The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.
When you stop drinking, you have to deal with this marvelous personality that started you drinking in the first place.
Sometimes the things we want most are impossible for us. You may long to come home, yet wander forever.
The amelioration of the world cannot be achieved by sacrifices made in moments of crisis; it depends on the efforts made and constantly repeated during the humdrum, uninspiring periods, which separate one crisis from another, and of which normal lives mainly consist.
Everything praises God. Darkness, privations, defects, evil too praise God and bless God.
The highest art is the art of living an ordinary life in an extraordinary manner.
The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves.
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but the world was too small for Alexander.
Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
Faith is not patience which passively suffers until the storm is passed. It is rather a spirit which bears things — with resignation, yes, but above all with blazing, serene hope.
There is a haphazard sort of doing good which is nothing but temperamental pleasure-seeking.
Just because you’ve stopped sinking doesn’t mean you’re not still underwater.
People talk about the courage of condemned men walking to the place of execution. Sometimes it needs as much courage to walk with any kind of bearing toward another person’s habitual misery.
All things truly wicked start from an innocence.
God gave burdens, also shoulders.
