Truth, like the burgeoning of a bulb under the soil, however deeply sown, will make its way to the light.
There is in the end no remedy but truth. It is the one course that cannot be evil.
The trouble with me, he thought unhappily, is that I have been about the world long enough to know that God's plans for us, however infallibly good, may not take the form we expect and demand.
God, nevertheless, required a little help from men, and what he mostly got was hindrance.
Once, I remember, Father Abbot said that our purpose is justice, and with God lies the privilege of mercy. But even God, when he intends mercy, needs tools to his hand.
Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies all problems.
Bitter though it may be to many, Cadfael concluded, there is no substitute for truth, in this or any case.
I have always known that the best of the Saracens could out-Christian many of us Christians.
One century's saint is the next century's heretic ... and one century's heretic is the next century's saint. It is as well to think long and calmly before affixing either name to any man.
Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.
I go to Prague every year if I can, value my relationships there like gold, and feel myself in a sense Czech, with all their hopes and needs. They are a people I not only love, but admire.
