It took me almost a year to get through this book.
Originally published in 1955, I have the book like the one pictured above, which is the 2003 edition. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"It is in loving others that we best love ourselves" (3).
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time" (34).
"Everything we love is uncertain: when we are seeking it, we fear we may not get it. When we have obtained it, we fear even more that it may be lost" (111).
"There are times, then, when in order to keep ourselves in existence at all we simply have to sit back for a while and do nothing. And for a man who has left himself be drawn completely out of himself by his activity, nothing is more difficult than to sit still and rest, doing nothing at all. The very act of resting is the hardest and most courageous act he can perform: and often it is quite beyond his power" (123).
"If we wait for some people to become agreeable or attractive before we begin to love them, we will never begin" (169).
"Some men are only virtuous enough to forget that they are sinners without being wretched enough to remember how much they need the mercy of God" (209).
This book was very contemplative, which I appreciate, but it was not something I could just sit down and read. It was more of a book to include in spiritual disciplines.
No comments:
Post a Comment