Commonplace Book

A selection of quotes that have shaped my thinking. Where applicable, each entry links to essays in which I discuss or employ the quotation.

Theology

“If we must remember offenses, let us remember only our own. And if we remember our own sins, we shall never store up the sins of others.” — St. John Chrysostom

“If there were no eternal law, there would be no basis for any law. If a man argues that ‘evil’ exists, he inadvertently proves that ‘good’ exists. And if he admits that a standard of ‘good’ exists, he must admit there is a source for that standard. You cannot have a crooked line unless you first have the concept of a straight one. To deny the source of the Law is to deny the existence of the Light by which we see the shadows.” —St. Thomas Aquinas

“If you are suffering from a bad man’s injustice, forgive him—lest there be two bad men.” — St. Augustine

“…I was going down to hell, carrying all the sins which I had committed, both against Thee, and myself, and others, many and grievous, over and above that bond of original sin, whereby we all die in Adam. For Thou hadst not forgiven me any of these things in Christ, nor had He abolished by His Cross the enmity which by my sins I had incurred with Thee. For how should He, by the crucifixion of a phantasm, which I believed Him to be?” (Augustine, Confessions V.10).

Reference in: Caiaphas and the Crucifixion of a Phantasm

Philosophy

“The law is reason free from passion” — Aristotle

“There is no better test of a man’s ultimate chivalry and integrity than how he behaves when he is wrong.” — G.K. Chesterton

Literature & Poetry

“For love is that liquor so sweet and Divine, That God felt as blood, but we taste as wine.” — George Herbert

“O friars!” I began, “your miseries—”
But there brake off, for one had caught my eye,
Fix’d to a cross with three stakes on the ground:
He, when he saw me, writh’d himself throughout,
Distorted, ruffling with deep sighs his beard.
And Catalano, who thereof was ‘ware
Thus spake: “That pierced spirit, whom intent
Thou view’st, was he who gave the Pharisees
Counsel, that it were fitting for one man
To suffer for the people.” (Dante, Inferno XXIII.115–123; cf. John 11:49–50)

Referenced in: Caiaphas and the Crucifixion of a Phantasm

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
(Milton, Paradise Lost Book I.254-255)

Of man’s disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
(Milton, Paradise Lost Book I.1-3)

Referenced in: Till One Greater Man —

Some easier enterprise? There is a place
(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heav’n
Err not) another world, the happy seat
Of some new race called Man, about this time
To be created like to us, though less
In power and excellence, but favoured more.
(Milton, Paradise Lost Book II.345-350)

Referenced in: The Council of Hell