Robert Hugh Benson

The process of digestion in every organism separates the healthy and useful from the harmful and useless elements.

Growth means the unfolding of interior capacities through the assimilation of external substances.

The real and only satisfactory motive for submission does not lie in superficial things, but in the deep, still current of faith that comes from God direct, and bears the soul along.

Since God is approaching man, it is not a degradation, but a triumph of His love, that He should come so far down to meet him.

The Church, like her Master and His ordinances, must have an earthly as well as a divine nature, if she is to do His work.

To assimilate blindfold will sooner or later end in poisoning.

One can do no more than gather the straws that float on the surface, and try to trace the course and meaning of their movements.

Competition, founded upon the conflicting interests of individuals, is in reality far less productive of wealth and enterprise than co-operation, involving though it does the constant apparent sacrifice of the individual to the common …

Individuals cannot cohere closely unless they sacrifice something of their individuality.

The individual saves his life by losing it, and realises the meaning of his own identity only by merging it in the commonwealth.

Great One in Three, of Whom are named All families in earth and heaven, Hear us, who have Thy promise claimed, And let a wealth of grace be given; Grant them in life and death to be Each knit to each, and both to Thee.

But ah, dear Saviour, human-wise, I yearn to pierce all mysteries, To catch Thine Hands, and see Thine Eyes When evening sounds begin. There, in Thy white Robe, Thou wilt wait At dusk beside some orchard gate, And smile to see me come so …

It seems to me probable that any one who has a series of intolerable positions to put up with must have been responsible for them to some extent:—not that it was simply 'their fault'—I don’t mean that—but that they contributed to it by …

You can love a person deeply and sincerely whom you do not like. You can like a person passionately whom you do not love.

Those who most confidently appeal to Reason are usually the very persons most controlled by Imagination.

Men are once more acting along the lines which are, after all, those sanctioned by our Blessed Lord Himself in the words, "By their fruits you shall know them."

Men must have facts first and explanations afterwards.

Robin felt a strange thrill of glory at the thought that he bore with him, in virtue of his priesthood only, so much consolation. He faced for the first time that tremendous call of which he had heard so much in Rheims—that desolate cry of …

For where men have made the earth that is trodden underfoot, and have largely veiled the heavens themselves, it is but natural that they should think that they have made everything, and that it is they who rule it.

A broken heart and God's will done would be better than that God's will should be avoided and her own satisfied.

In Christ’s Name, let us begin. For Christ has finished.

Charity, it has been said, is the pardoning of the unpardonable and the loving of the unlovable.

Humility, obedience, simplicity — these are the virtues on which the Divine Friendship, as well as mere human friendships, alone can thrive.

Conscience illuminated by the Presence of Jesus Christ in the heart must be the guide of every man.