Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes ... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.

Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.

If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction.

If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.

It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.

Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute ... It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; he does not fill it, but on the contrary, he keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain.

Only he who believes is obedient. Only he who is obedient, believes.

The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.

There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as though it were our last, and yet living in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future.

Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering.