Without love

"Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing."
 --Saint Therese of Lisieux

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

"He Whom the whole world could not contain enclosed Himself within thy womb, being made man."
--from the Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

Two words

Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--'Wait and hope'.

--Alexandre Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo

Understanding

Our most difficult task as a friend is to offer understanding when we don't understand.  

~Robert Brault

The shell

“Perhaps middle-age is, or should be, a period of shedding shells; the shell of ambition, the shell of material accumulations and possessions, the shell of the ego”

--Anne Morrow Lindbergh

On the shore

"I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought."

--Helen Keller

That best portion

That best portion of a good man's life,
his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

--William Wordsworth