Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26). David reacts to the split between Israel’s public faith and its battlefield…

You could put a blond wig on a hot-water heater and some dude would try to fuck it.

There was nothing wrong with fire … as long as you didn’t stand too close. Something to keep in mind.

of their passions in the same object at that particular time.

Fiat voluntas tua,

We’re miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature. We have...

Or he was simply pretending—like many drinkers, he liked to think each new day drew a line under the day before.

Judentum ist wie ein intensives Färbemittel; die geringste Quantität reicht hin, um einer unvergleichlich größeren Masse seinen Charakter zu geben oder wenigstens Spuren davon.

The word connects the visible trace with the invisible thing, the absent thing, the thing that is desired or feared, like a frail emergency bridge flung over an abyss.

No man should live longer than his teeth.

Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.

I never once thought I wanted to be a soldier. I wanted to be a teacher. As soon as I left college, though, they sent me my draft notice, stuck me in officers training, and...

Where some see a new world disorder, others see the opportunity to bring organization.

I wasn’t sure anymore what made a good marriage. There had to be love, of course, but there were so many different kinds of love. And clearly, some love was more enduring than others.

Juniper laughed for real, but one of those fake smiles he considered a plague of the Caucasian race followed. If you’re sad, be sad, he wanted to say.

ALL HE COULD SEE, IN EVERY DIRECTION, WAS WATER. It was June 23, 1943. Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a...

You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, not anymore.” And I cried.

Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.

Andy McKnight.

O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound. . . . Awake! and arise from the dust,...

at Florence which included diplomatic missions to various European courts. Imprisoned

Everyone knew what he was thinking. Certainly there were demons in the world. But they were like Tehlu’s angels. They were like heroes and kings. They belonged in stories. They belonged out there. Taborlin the...

Less abject but more shocking was the letter from the Founder of the Calvary Tabernacle Association in Oklahoma: Professor Einstein, I believe that every Christian in America will answer you, ‘We will not give up...

Patrick opens his arms about three feet wide and, with one finger pointing up on each hand, tries to show the scope of this thing. I notice that he doesn’t look at his hands as...

Every novel is brand-new. It’s never been written before in the history of the world. At the same time, it’s merely the latest in a long line of narratives—not just novels, but narratives generally—since humans...

so that it may grow fatter and

Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.— Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love Accompany your hearts!

But Marisa already knew the answer and it was too late for recrimination. The chance of even a rational discussion of the problem was forever shut out of Mama’s brain. A brutal bastard was steadily...

It was as if this night were only one of thousands of nights, world without end, night curving into night to make a great arching line of which I couldn’t see the end, a night...

That’s kind of creepy,

Spain, for so long a mere geographical expression, was somehow transformed into an historical fact.

the only one who wanted to be free. Surprise, surprise. CHAPTER

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

You know, you remind me of my younger brother. I miss that kid, so much that I sometimes regret killing him.

It will not suffer if it doesn’t get what it wants.

What do you gain if you ban employees from, say, visiting a social-networking site or watching YouTube while at work? You gain nothing. That time doesn’t magically convert to work. They’ll just find some other...

the book is intended to show how it is possible to live in and be enlarged by loss, even as we continue to experience it.

They’re enterprising pigs.

on. I’m getting cold.’ Clutching the pluckers, I call her. ‘Right,

Shall I count to ten and then ring a bell before I dive down between your legs?” Dustin teased and sent her a wicked smile.

I can see how James or Greene might agree with this point of view: the former finds that the ugly old lamp no longer produces a genie when rubbed and the latter realizes he has...

There is no better point of entry to the religious experience than the Sabbath, for all its apparent ordinariness. Because of its ordinariness. The extraordinariness of the Sabbath lies in its being commonplace.

or dead is coincidental. Copyright 2010 by Karen Fraunfelder Cantwell Chapter

I’ve always resented Hermione, because I wanted to be her so badly and she never seemed to appreciate as much as I thought she should that she got be her. She got to live at...

Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Epilogue Chapter One

No matter how great a writer, artist, or entrepreneur, he is a mortal, he is fallible. He is not proof against Resistance. He will drop the ball; he will crash. That’s why they call it...

My skin tingled, and suddenly, Deanna materialized before us. I jumped.

It was Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse who said that simply because a person is a member of a specific denomination, there is no reason to suppose that the entire denomination is represented by that person’s...

I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance…and if you have anxiety about initiating a project, then of course you will associate risk with failure.

The Specters feast as vampires feast on blood, but the Specters’ food is attention. A conscious and informed interest in the world. The immaturity of children is less attractive to them.