… forgiveness can be accepted only if the power of acceptance is effective in man – biblically speaking, if the power of grace is effective in man.

p. 107, Thomas Moore, Education of the Heart

Forgiveness means giving up hope for a different past. It means knowing that the past is over, the dust has settled and that the destruction left in its wake can never be reconstructed to resemble what it was. It’s accepting that there’s no magic solution to the damage that’s been caused.

Without knowing nature we cannot know who we are or what we are to do. Nature shapes us as much as we shape nature, in that mutual engagement is the fulfillment of both.
As each year of technological change comes and goes, it seems that nature loses its influence over the shaping of human life. It still manifests its power for beauty and for devastation, but the human response seems to be an increasingly defensive and offensive struggle.

p. 65, Thomas Moore, Meditations

What if we always read as prayer, every book a scripture, whether science, fiction, theology. Our minds might release some of their authority and influence, allowing our heart, or some other place of reflection, to be nourished.

p. 51, Thomas Moore, Meditations

For what winter binds, spring releases, summer heats, autumn ripens; and the seasons in turn bring forth their own fruits or help the others to bring forth theirs.

Boethius, p. 62, Thomas Moore, education of the Heart

Faith is… …an incredible vision.
It is make-believe. Questions of truth and falsity remain irrelevant. Belief and disbelief are transcended in authentic faith.
Faith is make-believe. It is playing as if it were true.
David Miller, Gods and Games, p. 56, Thomas Moore, education of the Heart

You could never arrive at the limits of the soul, no matter how many roads you traveled, so deep is it’s mystery.

… the soul animates the body, just as the soul is animated by the spirit,…

Book of Life, Marsilio Ficino
p. 14, Education of the Heart, Thomas Moore

In the Spirit, we try to transcend our humanity,
in the soul we try to enter our humanity
fully and realize it completely.

p. 12, Thomas Moore, Education of the Heart

Some ways of knowing do not require understanding. … You may understand less and less about the world and yet you might feel more a part of it than ever. Unconditional love means that we don’t love on the condition that we understand.

p. 73, Thomas Moore, Original self