Deeper self-examination, completer abstraction, than I can attain even here, are what I crave for.

I long--forgive me, my friend--but I long more and more, daily, for the solitary life.

This earth is accursed by man's sin: the less we see of it, it seems to me, the better.' 'I may speak as a philosopher, or as a heathen, for aught I know: yet it seems to me that, as they say, the half loaf is better than none; that the wise man will make the best of what he has, and throw away no lesson because the book is somewhat torn and soiled.

The earth teaches me thus far already.

Shall I shut my eyes to those invisible things of God which are clearly manifested by the things which are made, because some day they will be more clearly manifested than now?
But as for more abstraction, are we so worldly here in Scetis ?' 'Nay, my friend, each man has surely his vocation, and for each some peculiar method of life is more edifying than another.