Where the Light Fell

by Philip Yancey

In order to be prepared to hope in what does not deceive, we must first lose hope in everything that deceives. —Georges Bernanos (in Reason for Being by Jacques Ellul)

The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parents. —Carl Jung, Alchemical Studies

There is a terrible kind of cruelty, no matter how well intended, in demanding the denial of self when there is no selfhood to deny. —James Fowler, Stages of Faith

We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, so that what we believe, we disbelieve, and cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn. —Michel de Montaigne, Essays, “Of Glory”

It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers. —James Thurber, “The Scotty Who Knew Too Much”

“Perhaps the grace is here, and you don’t have the receptors to receive it.”

Who would have thought my shriveled heart Could have recovered greenness? It was gone Quite underground… —George Herbert, “The Flower”

Jesus clearly did not use the techniques of Goffman’s total institutions.

As G. K. Chesterton put it, “The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.”

The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

Corruptio optimi pessima goes an old Latin saying: “The corruption of the best is the worst.”