"God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down."

-----C.S. Lewis, "A Grief Observed"

"MTV is like Unions, you know? Because it started out really cool, but now it's just turning into a big mess, and it needs to be changed. It's so boring! It's so bloody boring!!! I'm numbed, day after day."

----Jeff Buckley, 1995 French TV interview

"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men."

-----John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Beginners in the spiritual life are apt to become very diligent in their exercises. The great danger for them will be to become satisfied with their religious works and with themselves. It is easy for them to develop a kind of secret pride, which is the first of the seven capital sins.

Such persons become too spiritual. They like to speak of "spiritual things" all the time. They become content with their growth. They would prefer to teach rather than to be taught. They condemn others who are not as spiritual as they are. They are like the Pharisee who boasted in himself and despised the publican who was not as spiritual as he.

The devil will often inflame their fervor so that their pride will grow even greater. The devil knows that all of their works and virtues will become valueless and, if unchecked, will become vices. For they begin to do these spiritual exercises to be esteemed by others. They want others to realize how spiritual they are. They will also begin to fear confession to another for it would ruin their image. So they soften their sins when they make confession in order to make them appear less imperfect.

They will beg God to take away their imperfections, but they do this only because they want to find inner peace and not for God's sake. They do not realize that if God were to take away their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder and more presumptiuous still.

But those who are at this time moving in God's way will counter this pride with humility. They will learn to think very little of themselves and their religious works. Instead, they will focus on how great and how deserving God is and how little it is that they can do for Him. The Spirit of God dwells in such persons, urging them to keep their treasures secretly within themselves."

----St. John of the Cross, from "Dark Night of the Soul"

"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated in quotations." -Benjamin Disraeli

A friend forwarded the transcript of Bono's Dec. 1 interview with Larry King of CNN (I checked but the transcript is not yet online). Here are three things Bono said:
== "...religion is this sort of -- religion is the artifice, you know, the building, after God has left it sometimes, like Elvis has left the building. You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough."

== "I'm half Catholic and half -- I mean, I'm not doubting. I don't doubt God. I have firm faith absolutely in God. It's religion I'm doubting.."

== "America is not just a country; it's an idea. You have to defend the idea as well as the country, and that idea is being attacked."