“In 1867, Matthew Arnold heard the ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’ of the Sea of Faith.”
Charles J. Sykes, A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character
“Search for the perfect church if you will; when you find it, join it, and realize that on that day it becomes something less than perfect.”
Fr. Andrew Greeley quoted by William F. Buckley Jr. in National Review Sept. 15, 1997
In my latest Epoch Times column I say the answer to declining social trust, including on COVID lockdowns and vaccines, isn’t to shame and silence people, it’s to have an intelligent and respectful discussion. Which apparently now makes me a kook.
“The question is not whether the Catholic leadership is enlightened but whether Catholicism is true. A whole College of Cardinals filled with psychopathic tyrants provides no answer one way or the other to that question.”
Fr. Andrew Greeley quoted by William F. Buckley Jr. in National Review September 15, 1997
“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.”
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man
“For everywhere, above and below, you will find nothing but the selfsame things; they fill the pages of all history, ancient, modern, and contemporary; and they fill our cities and homes today. There is no such thing as novelty; all is as trite as it is transitory.”
Marcus Aurelius Meditations VII.1
“The only real property possessed by theology and metaphysics at the present day is their character of universality, and when deprived of this motive for preference they will have for our successors only a historical interest.”
Auguste Comte Introduction to Positive Philosophy
“Surely what matters in a dogma – religious, political or any other kind – is not the motive of those who advance it, but whether it is true or false.”
Ted and Virginia Byfield in “Orthodoxy” in British Columbia Report August 18, 1997