“To be useful was the best thing the old men ever hoped for themselves, and to be aimless was their worst fear”

“I think hope is the worst thing in the world. I really do. It makes a fool of you while it lasts. And then when it's gone, it's like there's nothing left of you at all . . . except what you can't be rid of.”

“I would advise you against defensiveness on priciple. it precludes the best eventualities along with the worst. At the most basic level it expresses a lack of faith.”

“Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it. I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave - that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm. And therefore, this courage allows us, as the old men said, to make ourselves useful. It allows us to be generous, which is another way of saying exactly the same thing.”

“We would have visions in those days,a number of us did. Your young men will have visions and your old men will dream dreams”

“It is one of the best traits of good people that they love where they pity. And this is truer of women than of men.”

“When we accept dismissive judgments of our community we stop having generous hope for it. We cease to be capable of serving its best interests.”