The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin, but those that offer us great evils masking as the greatest goods.

One of the effects of original sin is an instinctive prejudice in favour of our own selfish desires. We see things as they are not, because we see them centered on ourselves. Fear, anxiety, greed, ambition and our hopeless need for pleasure all distort the image of reality that is reflected in our minds. Grace does not completely correct this distortion all at once: but it gives us a means of recognizing and allowing for it. And it tells us what we must do to correct it. Sincerity must be bought at a price: the humility to recognize our innumerable errors, and fidelity in tirelessly setting them right.

Technology is not in itself opposed to spirituality and to religion. But it presents a great temptation.

God has left sin in the world in order that there may be forgiveness: not only the secret forgiveness by which He Himself cleanses our souls, but the manifest forgiveness by which we have mercy on one another and so give expression to the fact that He is living, by His mercy, in our own hearts.

In this age of crowds in which I have determined to be a solitary, perhaps the greatest sin would be to lament the presence of people on the threshold of my solitude

The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.