"There is a genius in suffering as in all else. The confessor may labor with Christ, the martyr be crucified with Him; it is the artist alone who can understand or share the agony of Olivet."
"Of sacrifice:
"The history of Cain and Abel is full of significance to us. It is not of the things that renew themselves year by year that God would have us make our offering. To be acceptable to Him the sacrifice must be irreparable."
Despite his gaiety, his personal pessimism was unbounded. He was taken to task for it once by a burly and breezy Jesuit.
"After all, Vernon, God is Lord of life as well as of death."
"True," replied Vernon, as though speaking to himself. "But with a perceptible bias toward death."
He maintained that while it was our duty to resist all temptations, there were some so overwhelming that our responsibility was ended when we asked God to keep them out of our way.
He used to say that the crowning humiliation of the saints was to know their lives would be written by the devout.