Robin

“It is noble to pity a man who is cruel because he is weak, but it is idiotic and dangerous to allow him to have power.”
― Kate Horsley, Confessions of a Pagan Nun

“Why is it necessary to everyone to read the classics? Shouldn't only specialists spend their time on these texts, with other people devoting their efforts to particular interests of their own? Actually, it is precisely because these works are intended for *all* that they have become classics. They have been tried and tested and deemed valuable for the general culture --- the way in which people live their lives. They have been found to enhance and elevate the consciousness of all sorts and conditions of people who study them, to lift their readers out of narrowness or provincialism into a wider vision of humanity. Further, they guard the truths of the human heart from the faddish half-truths of the day by straightening the mind and imagination and enabling their readers to judge for themselves. In a word, they lead those who will follow into a perception of the fullness and complexity of reality.”
― Louise Cowan, Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You've Always Wanted to Read

“The classics constitute an almost infallible process for awakening the soul to its full stature. In coming to know a classic, one has made a friend for life. It can be recalled to the mind and 'read' all over again in the imagination. And actually perusing the text anew provides a joy that increases with time. These marvelous works stand many rereadings without losing their force. In fact, they almost demand rereading, as a Beethoven symphony demands replaying. We never say of a music masterpiece, 'Oh I've heard that!' Instead, we hunger to hear it again to take in once more, with new feeling and insight, its long-familiar strains.”
― Louise Cowan, Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You've Always Wanted to Read

“Mathematics is the language of science-- but it is also the hidden structure behind art… and its basis is the invisible Logos of God.”
― Stratford Caldecott, Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education