"If ever a man has need of an advocate, a champion to justify him, especially in his own eyes, it is at the moment of his death."
"It is a constant principle in the affairs of this world that one must wait until one's adversary is hard pressed by hunger, poverty, or necessity, to force him to kneel and accept injustice. This is an abominable system... It is here that man becomes the wolf of man."
"A man's vocation is in fact the instrument of his crucifixion. Verbum crucis."
"... it is high time to tell science that it extrapolates, that it exaggerates, that it exasperates, that it is in our service and not we in its service and that, even if it is as big as Goliath, we do not recognize its right to make us bow down and worship it."
"There is in every man and in every Christian an inalienable part of himself that is related only to God, and that infinitely precious part is to be governed only by God."
"Modern intellect has severed the umbilical cord that once attached it to the divine design, it has deliberately rejected its royal function and all ambition for true wisdom. Since Descartes, philosophy has determinedly sought the keys to the universe within the universe; now philosophy knows that the universe will not give up its secret, perhaps because it has no secret but is only presenting charades."
"I have seen the Indians in Mexico performing their devotions in the basilica at Guadalupe: they probably did not know how to read or write and very likely did not get enough to eat, but they had the faith of the centurion, the authenticity of which blazed out with a clarity so strong that it put superstition to shame..."
"Come on, comrade Communists, you who deafen us with your assertions that religion is an opium that prevents the coming of that radiant and fraternal city 'where the free development of each is the condition of the free development of all.' Come and consider honestly for once this religion [Christianity] in which one cannot harm the poor, the weak, the humble without offending God Himself and His Christ, in which honor and service rendered to the poor, the weak, and the humble redounds to God Himself. We on our side are quite willing to admit that sometimes Christians are bad practitioners of their religion and that they often store up for themselves a terrible awakening on the Day of Judgment, but do you on your side have the gerenosity to acknowledge that this religion threatens no one. Make us ashamed of not being worthy of it, but do not blaspheme it: you cannot touch it without threatening the lives and the honor of the poor, the weak, and the humble."
"Science can do much good and has done so at its level. It can do much evil, for unlike religion it is purely utilitarian, it does not concern itself with final ends... Science is neither salvation nor apocalypse, it is no more than a (barely) domesticated animal, which should always be kept on a tight leash."
