“Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.”

“On the morning appointed for her departure Tess awoke before dawn at the marginal minute of the dark when the grove is still mute save for one prophetic bird, who sings with a clear-voiced convict...”

“Tess was awake before dawn at the marginal minute of the dark when the grove is still mute, save for one prophetic bird who sings with a clear-voiced conviction that he at least knows the correct ...”

“I know women are taught by other women that they must never admit the full truth to a man. But the highest form of affection is based on full sincerity on both sides. Not being men, these women don...”

“Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.”

“Like all people who have known rough times, light-heartedness seemed to her too irrational and inconsequent to be indulged in except as a reckless dram now and then; for she had been too early habi...”

“Our lack of community is intensely painful. A TV talk show is not community. A couple of hours in a church pew each Sabbath is not community. A multinational corporation is neither a human nor a co...”

“Holiness is as much about what you do on a Monday morning on the factory floor as it is about what you do on a Sunday morning in a church gathering. Holiness is as much about the kind of neighbour ...”

“Liturgy gathers the holy community as it reads the Holy Scriptures into the sweeping tidal rhythms of the church year in which the story of Jesus and the Christian makes its rounds century after ce...”

“...But I've felt your grief, your loss. And though your species is capable of horrors, it's capable of beauty, too. To end it now would be no better than taking your dreams away; to bring death rob...”