The Holy Longing
“Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.”
—Hermann Hesse
phoebe added
The longing that Augustine describes is less like curiosity and more like hunger—less like an intellectual puzzle to be solved and more like a craving for sustenance (see Ps. 42:1–2).
James K. A. Smith • You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit
Goethe shows us a more excellent way. Touched with a profound feeling of the worth of life, the wisdom of order, the nobility of effort, he gives us an ideal to pursue and shows us the means of pursuing it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Maxims and Reflections
"Piety," he says, "is not an end but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquillity of soul."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Maxims and Reflections
Ignorant people raise questions which were answered by the wise thousands of years ago.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Maxims and Reflections
We must long for truth, freedom, loving communion with the silent depths of God.
Martin Laird • Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation
We must long for truth, freedom, loving communion with the silent depths of God.