The intercourse between man and God reposes upon truths of another order than that of reason, upon a light different and more elevated than that which naturally enlightens created intelligences. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire More Quotes by Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire More Quotes From Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire Youth is life's beautiful moment. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire youth moments beautiful Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire greatness kindness love Happily, and thanks to God, there are orifices through which our inner life constantly escapes, and the soul, like the blood, hath its pores. The mouth is the chief and foremost of these channels which lead the soul out of its invisible sanctuary; it is by speech that man communicates the secret converse which is his real life. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire real men blood Nothing wounds a friend like a want of confidence. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire wounds want friendship Christianity is not a law of bondage; and if it respect the hand of God which sometimes raises up tyrants, it draws up where obedience degenerates into guilty cowardice. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire tyrants law hands Turn your eyes whither you will, enter into whatever temple you please, you will find there on the very threshold Prophecy and Sacrament .... whoever despises these two things, infallibly bends towards earth, knowing nothing of God but his name, and holding with him no other relations than ingratitude and forgetfulness. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire knowing-nothing eye names For Christians, the first of books is the Gospel and the Rosary is actually the abridgement of the Gospel. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire rosary christian book As to the lawful pleasures of the mind, the heart, or the senses, indulge in them with gratitude and moderation, drawing up sometimes in order to punish yourself, without waiting to be forced to do so by necessity. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire gratitude heart order It is religion which has made modern Europe what she is by its stability amid the ruin of nations, by adapting itself to circumstances, to times, and places, without ever abating an iota of its unshaken principles. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire ruins principles europe Like every man who appears at an epoch which is historical and rendered famous by his works, Jesus Christ has a history, a history which the church and the world possess, and which, surrounded by countless memorials, has at least the same authenticity as any other history formed in the same countries, amidst the same peoples and in the same times. As, then, if I would study the lives of Brutus and Cassius, I should calmly open Plutarch, I open the Gospel to study Jesus Christ, and I do so with the same composure. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire men country jesus Whilst no people appears in history without the sign and palladium of a positive faith, without temple, altar, priesthood--that is to say, without a constituted religion--unbelief appears only under an individual form, sometimes proscribed, sometimes tolerated, seldom powerful, and never becoming established as the public and social expression of a nation. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire powerful expression people There is nothing fruitful except sacrifice. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire self-denial sacrifice The great men of antiquity were poor. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire great-men poor men Only yesterday I was full of worldly fancies, although religion had already some share in my thoughts: glory was still my daydream. Today my hopes are higher, and I covet here below nothing but obscurity and peace. Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire obscurity fancy yesterday