Clergyman Quotes

"There is no way to peace; peace is the way."

"We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life."

"It's true that humanity has seen a succession of crises, wars and atrocities, but this negative side is offset by advances in technology and cultural exchanges."

"People are needed to take up the challenge, strong people, who proclaim the truth, throw it in people's faces, and do what they can with their own two hands."

"It's not enough to attend church and pray every Sunday; you have to act."

"The question I asked Georges has now become a general one - You, who thought you were superfluous, who thought there was no place for you in society, not only are you not superfluous, you are needed and so those who were beggars become givers."

"My family background was deeply Christian."

"Providence was well aware what lay ahead for me, and my Capuchin training was to prepare me for it."

"What I would say to the young men and women who are beset by hopelessness and doubt is that they should go and see what is being done on the ground to fight poverty, not like going to the zoo but to take action, to open their hearts and their consciences."

"The process of my transformation came to a head with my discovery of St. Francis of Assisi during a pilgrimage I went on with a scout troop from my school."

"Those seven years in the cloister were the key to my life."

"I came from a wealthy family. I made over my share of the estate to various charities."

"Illness has always brought me nearer to a state of grace."

"After the war, prompted by the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, I entered Parliament so that a priest could speak out for the poor, as canon law at that time still permitted."

"Hope is not a matter of age."

"When they are assailed by despair, young people should let universal concerns into their lives."

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself."

"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."

"God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance."

"A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair."

"Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy."

"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason."

"Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge."

"A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture."

"Man is a messenger who forgot the message."

"Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God."

"God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness with the light of reason. He is the light."

"The road to the sacred leads through the secular."

"It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?"

"He who is satisfied has never truly craved, and he who craves for the light of God neglects his ease for ardor."