Dear Lord… Give me the strength that waits upon You in silence and peace. Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. And possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love. Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love that I may love not for the sake of merit, not for the sake of perfection, not for the sake of virtue, not for the sake of sanctity, but for You alone. Amen. – Thomas Merton
I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know. ― Mark Twain (via Goodreads)
“To Father and to Son and Holy Ghost,” sang all the heavens, “glory!” – filling me with drunken joy; it seemed what I beheld was laughter of the universe, the glee of laughter whose inebriating swell enters by what you hear and what you see. O joy! O happiness ineffable! O riches safe, no worry of desire! O life of love and peace, perfect and full! – Dante’s Paradiso (Anthony Esolen, translator)
It is but one step from the ridiculous to the sublime. – G.K. Chesterton
You grow up the first day you have your first real laugh… at yourself. – Ethel Barrymore
A man’s minor actions and arrangements ought to be free, flexible, creative; the things that should be unchangeable are his principles, his ideals. But with us the reverse is true; our views change constantly; but our lunch does not change. Now, I should like men to have strong and rooted conceptions, but as for their lunch, let them have it sometimes in the garden, sometimes in bed, sometimes on the roof, sometimes in the top of a tree. Let them argue from the same first principles, but let them do it in a bed, or a boat, or a ballroom. – G.K. Chesterton, “On Lying in Bed”
I believe [God] has a great sense of humor. Sometimes he gives you something like a nudge and says, Don’t take yourself so seriously! Humor is in fact an essential element in the mirth of creation. We can see how, in many matters in our lives, God wants to prod us into taking things a bit more lightly; to see the funny side of it; to get down off our pedestal and not to forget our sense of fun. – Pope Benedict XVI, God and the World
You cannot be too solemn about golf to be a good golfer; you can be a great deal too solemn about Christianity to be a good Christian. You may put into your neckties solemnity, and nothing but solemnity, because neckties are not the whole of your life – at least, I hope not. But in anything that does cover the whole of your life – in your philosophy and your religion – you must have mirth. If you do not have mirth you will certainly have madness. – G.K. Chesterton, Lunacy and Letters, as quoted in Advent and Christmas Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton
Living Differently 