A man in the jungle at night, as someone said, may suppose a hyena's growl to be a lion's but when he hears the lion's growl, he knows damn well it's a lion.

Both Heaven and Hell are retroactive, all of one's life will eventually be known to have been one or the other.

But Love is the final reality and anyone who does not understand this, be he writer or sage, is a man flawed in wisdom.

...So Englishmen saw it. Lincoln's insincerity was regarded as proven by two things: his earlier denial of any lawful right or wish to free the slaves and, especially, his not freeing the slaves in 'loyal' Kentucky and other United States areas or even in Confederate areas occupied by United States troops, such as New Orleans.

Art is first a seeing and then a revealing

It is not possible to be incidentally a Christian. The fact of Christianity must be overwhelmingly first or nothing.

If it's half as good as the half we've known, here's Hail! to the rest of the road.

Between the probable and proved there yawns A gap. Afraid to jump, we stand absurd, Then see behind us sink the ground and, worse, Our very standpoint crumbling. Desperate dawns Our only hope: to leap into the Word That opens up the shuttered universe.

It is not possible to be 'incidentally a Christian.' The fact of Christianity must be overwhelmingly first or nothing. This suggests a reason for the dislike of Christians by nominal or non-Christians: their lives contain no overwhelming first but many balances.

But I was not obeying the first and greatest commandment - to love God first - nor is it clear that I was obeying the second - to love my neighbour. Hating the oppressors of my neighbour isn't perhaps quite what Christ had in mind.

Signs must be read with caution. The history of Christendom is replete with instances of people who misread the signs.