Quotes about Life

The practice of the presence of God, though we begin it at special times of prayer, is designed to spill out and over and into all times.

The true philosopher lives his life as a dress rehearsal for death.

The contemplative life not only does not exclude, but requires, the active life.

If human life becomes cheapened, it becomes cheapened at both ends. Parents are killed, by euthanasia, when they become a "burden" to their children; and children are killed, by abortion, when they become a "burden" to their parents. All societies in history would regard these two sins as two of the most heartless and inhuman possible sins. To kill your parents is to kill yourself, your own past; and to kill your children is to kill yourself, your own future.

To exercise what Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy called a right that is "at the heart of liberty"— namely, the right to determine for oneself the meaning of life and the mystery of human existence—is to tell God, "Get off my throne.

Earthly life is full of soporifics, anaesthetics, pain-dullers. In fact, compared with Purgatory our whole life on earth will appear to have been life only half awake. In Purgatory we will be fully awake, fully sensitive, and fully cognizant of the evil of all of our sins. Our clear knowledge of God's brightness and beauty will make our clear knowledge of our own darkness and ugliness more painful than any similar light that shows up our most terrible defects here on earth.

He came. That is the salient fact, the towering truth, that alone keeps us from putting a bullet through our heads. He came.

Human fathers give human life, animal fathers give animal life, God the Father gives divine life. It's called grace.

Live a life of love, especially the love of God, and observe the joy of it. Live a life of lovelessness and observe the joylessness of it.

A fundamental principle of Catholic theology is that grace perfects nature rather than setting it aside; and that means that the Christian life is not a two-layer cake, the supernatural simply added on to the natural. It transforms the natural but by perfecting it, not by demeaning it.

Grace is not in nature so much as nature is in grace. Saint Thérèse said, on her deathbed, "Everything is grace.

our primary practical commandment in this life, to love our neighbors: it is not only for their and our good in time, but also preparation for our and their eternal blessedness.