“. . . for us there still exists a serene, unfathomable abyss in which God and the spirits dwell. The soul, in moments of ecstasy, often soars across it; poetry unveils it at times with childlike naivete; but science with its hammer and yardstick is often perched at the rim and may, in many cases, contribute nothing at all.”

“Denn was auch immer auf Erden besteht,besteht durch Ehre und Treue.Wer heute die alte Pflicht verrät,verrät auch morgen die neue.”

“In the afternoon the digestion of the meal deprives me of the incomparable lightness which characterizes the fast days.”

“Eating three times a day means takingon, almost without respite, the work of assimilation.”

“One of my confreres sketched an explanation that attracted me: since the process of digestion is under the control of the brain, its cessation gave repose to the brain, allowed it a vacation.”

“The discrepancy between the modern observance and the prescriptions of the Rule had struck me ever since the novitiate, and no satisfactory explanation had ever been given to me. People said that man had changed: the weakness of people's health no longer allows us to fast. Was it true?”

“For nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the ind as a steady purpose -- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.”