THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMANITY

'People are more important and more enduring than things. In an unstable and perishable universe the one stable and imperishable factor is human personality. It is with this that God is primarily concerned. A man's character is the only thing he can take out of this life with him.' 

Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude, p.152. 

BELIEF & BEHAVIOUR

'There is an indissoluble link between conduct and conviction.'
Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude, p.152. 

UNREALISTIC PARENTING

'I wanted him (& I also wanted this for his 2 younger sisters) to like all the things I liked to do & to do the things I did, & at the same time to be able to do all the things I couldn't...'

Penelope Fitzgerald in Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life, p.163.

THE IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRITY

'No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.' 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, p.161.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DIFFERENCE IN FRIENDSHIP

'It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.' 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, p.19.

THE PASTORAL POWER OF A CUP OF TEA

'Dottie suddenly asked the woman if she would like a cup of tea, and Shelley said, "Oh, wouldn't that be nice," and so they sat in the living room, which was really the lounge. Shelly Small didn't take more than one sip of the tea; that was just a prop, as they would say in the world of theatre, just a piece of furniture, so to speak, allowing her to sit in Dottie's house on the autumn day while the light shifted through the room. That cup of tea, Dottie saw, gave her permission to talk.' 

Elizabeth Strout, Anything is Possible, p.187. 

KNOWING GOD

'The God who is Divine community is known only in human community.'
David G Benner, The Gift of Yourself: The Scared Call to Self-Discovery, p.49.