Elizabeth Goudge

“Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life...”

“We all of us try to make God in our image. It is one of the worst of our temptations.”

“Human nature is intractable stuff, hard jagged stuff, the kind of stuff that dreams are wrecked on.”

“There is no greater tyranny than that of social custom.”

“For unbelief was easier than belief, much less demanding and subtly flattering because the agnostic felt himself to be intellectually superior to the believer. And then unbelief haunted by faith, as she knew by experience, produced a rather pleasant nostalgia, while belief haunted by doubt involved real suffering.”

“Life is a reaching out for something or someone. That is its definition.”

“There was something disruptive about Christmas and not only in the merely material way. The original Christmas had proved exceedingly disrupting to the entire world and the tremors of the original event vibrated through every life year by year.”