Drink

G.K. ChestertonHeretics p. 80
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Jesus Christ also made wine, not a medicine, but a sacrament. But [the non-Christian] makes it, not a sacrament, but a medicine. He feasts because life is not joyful; he revels because he is not glad.nn”Drink”, he says, “for you know not whence you come nor why. Drink, for you know not when you go nor where. Drink, because the stars are cruel and the world as idle as a humming-top. Drink, because there is nothing worth trusting, nothing worth fighting for. Drink, because all things are lapsed in a base equality and an evil peace.” So he stands offering us the cup in his hand.nnAnd at the high altar of Christianity stands another figure, in whose hand also is the cup of the vine. “Drink” he says “for the whole world is as red as this wine, with the crimson of the love and wrath of God. Drink, for the trumpets are blowing for battle and this is the stirrup-cup. Drink, for this is my blood of the new testament that is shed for you. Drink, for I know of whence you come and why. Drink, for I know of when you go and where.”

Freedom Time

Lauryn HillMTV Unplugged No. 2.0
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Our present condition needs serious recognitionnWhere there’s no repentance there can be no remission.nAnd that sentence more serious than Vietnam, nthe atom bomb, and Saddam, nand Minister Farrakhan.nWhat’s going on? What’s a priority to you? nBy what authority do we do?nThe majority hasn’t a clue.

The Fashionable Insanity

G.K. ChestertonHeretics p. 39
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Moreover, a man with a definite belief always appears bizarre, because he does not change with the world; he has climbed into a fixed star, and the earth whizzes below him like a [movie]. Millions of mild black-coated men call themselves sane and sensible merely because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they are hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world.

The Truth By Which All Else Is True

St. AugustineConfessions p. 230
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Men love the truth when it bathes them in its light: they hate it when it proves them wrong. Because they hate to be deceived themselves, but are glad if they can deceive others, they love the truth when it is revealed to them but hate it when it reveals that they are wrong… This is precisely the behaviour of the human mind… It loves to lie concealed, yet it wishes that nothing should be concealed from it. Its reward is just the opposite of its desire, for it cannot conceal itself from the truth, but the truth remains hidden from it… It shall be happy if it learns to ignore all that distracts it and to rejoice in truth, the sole Truth by which all else is true.

Sound That Never Dies Away

St. AugustineConfessions pp. 211-212
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But what do I love when I love my God? Not material beauty or beauty of a temporal order; not the brilliance of earthly light, so welcome to our eyes; not the sweet melody of harmony and song; not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices; not manna or honey; not limbs such as the body delights to embrace. It is not these that I love when I love my God. And yet, when I love him, it is true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace; but they are of the kind that I love in my inner self, when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space; when it listens to sound that never dies away; when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind; when it tastes food that is never consumed by the eating; when it clings to an embrace from which it is not severed by fulfilment of desire. This is what I love when I love my God.