Creative thinking is not stimulated by vicarious issues but by personal problems.

There is a high cost of living to be paid by a Jew. He has to be exalted in order to be normal in a world that is neither propitious for nor sympathetic to his survival.

Must being in love always mean being in pain?

It is worth pointing out that feeling things (which usually means feeling them painfully ) is at some level linked to the acquisition of knowledge.

The figure of the crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.

We have to learn that personal suffering is a more effective key, a more rewarding principle for exploring the world in thought and action than personal good fortune.

I wonder why it is that we find some days so much more oppressive than others, for no apparent reason. Is it growing pains - or spiritual trial? Once they're over, the world looks quite a different place again.

The joy of God has gone through the poverty of the manger and the distress of the cross; therefore it is invincible and irrefutable.

Christ is not gloriously transported from earth into heaven. He must instead go to the cross. And precisely there, where the cross stands, the resurrection is near. Precisely here, where all lose faith in God, where all despair about the power of God, God is fully there, and Christ is alive and near.

What is the power of Christ? It is the hidden, secret power of the cross and of suffering.

Just as Christ maintained his communion with the Father by his endurance, so his followers are to maintain their communion with Christ by their endurance.

So often the pain of our life is no more than a reminder to take our hand off the stove.