Oh, I don't think religion has failed. It's man who has failed. Christ hasn't failed. The Gospel hasn't failed. The teachings of God have not failed.

Remember, if you don't sin, then Jesus died for nothing

The Church calls people to be not spiritual mediocrities, but great saints, and this is why its moral ideals are so stringent. Yet the Church also mediates the infinite mercy of God to those who fail to live up to that ideal (which means practically everyone). This is why its forgiveness is so generous and so absolute. To grasp both of these extremes is to understand the Catholic approach to morality.

I don't like places or people either that haven't any faults. I think that a truly perfect person would be very uninteresting.

Books are not written about proper children. They would be so dull no one would read them.

But we can't have things perfect in this imperfect world, as Mrs. Lynde says. Mrs. Lynde isn't exactly a comforting person sometimes, but there's no doubt she says a great many very true things.

It is regrettable that many Christian psychologists talk more about such things as unconscious motivation and emotional damage than they do about sin and responsibility.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth" (1 John 1:8). It seems God leads us through failure toward maturity, rather than doing whatever is needed for us to move past ongoing failure.

The church saves sinners, but science seeks to stop their manufacture.

Perfect is overrated. Perfect is boring." I smile. "You don't think I'm perfect?" "No. You're delightfully screwy, and I wouldn't have you any other way.

To appreciate life's small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect.

We are idiots now, we have been idiots in the past and we will be idiots again in the future - and that is OK.