Category: Fulton Sheen

External circumstances may condition our mental outlook and dispositions, but they do not cause them.

Our modern world has produced a generation of rich politicians who talk about the love of the poor but never prove it in action and a brood of the poor whose hearts are filled with envy for the rich and covetousness of their money.

Humility is the pathway to knowledge. No scientist would ever learn the atom’s secrets if, in his conceit, he told the atom what he thought it ought to do. Knowledge comes only with humility before the object which can bring us the truth.

The egotist, standing alone in his self-imagined greatness, lives in a world of a lie because the truth about himself would puncture his self-inflation.

Repose-true leisure cannot be enjoyed without some recognition of the spiritual world, for the first purpose of repose is the contemplation of the good.

Never before have men possessed so many time-saving devices. Never back have they had so little time for leisure or repose. Yet few of them are aware of this; advertising has created in modern minds the false notion that leisure and not working are the same–that the more we are surrounded by bolds and wheels, switches and gadgets, the more time we have conquered for our own.

The rapidity of communication, the hourly news broadcasts, tomorrow’s news the night before–all these make people live on the surfaces of their souls. The result is that very few live inside themselves. They have their moods determined by the world.

Even friendships are matured in silence. Friends are made by words; love is preserved in silence. Best friends are those who know how to keep the same silences.

Happiness must be our bridesmaid, not our bride.

Our enjoyment of life is vastly increased if we follow the spiritual injunction to bring some mortification and self-denial into our lives.