“He felt the joy spread down his body like a slow anointing with holy oil, warm and soothing, from head to toe.” Joy Book:An Unorthodox Match Source: An Unorthodox Match
“Most people were good, intelligent, responsible human beings struggling to live decent, useful lives. Why was it so many of them found that almost impossible? Was it because there were just no rules anymore, people making them us as the went along? From her own bitter experience, she saw that most good people were simply lost, bobbing around like castaways in a moral wasteland flooded with debris and ugliness, waiting to be rescued and placed on solid ground.” PeopleLifeMoralsRulesLack Of Rules Book:An Unorthodox Match Source: An Unorthodox Match
“I understand that you are learning new things, seeing a different way of life and because you are you, you're full of enthusiasm. But let the mother you think knows nothing and is pretty much useless tell you this: people are just people. Nobody is a bigger saint than the next one; they just hide their true selves better. Sooner or later, you'll figure out for yourself that this community you're madly in love with and want so much to be a part of is just like the rest of the world.” PeopleCommunitiesTrue Selves Book:An Unorthodox Match Source: An Unorthodox Match
“Indeed, there was something hard and unforgiving and almost brutal among those who considered themselves the most piously stringent in their observance, something ugly and positively vicious in their unrelenting persecution of those who deviated from their standards.” Better Than YouRelgionPiousnessRulesl Book:An Unorthodox Match Source: An Unorthodox Match
“So many mistakes. So many bad choices. So many tragedies and hurts brought to innocent people with the best of intentions or with no intentions at all. It was so hard to be human. It was so hard to be alive.” ChoicesHurtLivingBeing HumanIntentionsTragedies Book:An Unorthodox Match Source: An Unorthodox Match
“So many hypocrites, people busy preaching acceptance and tolerance but hating and rejecting everyone who isn't exactly like them.” HateAcceptanceTolerance Book:An Unorthodox Match Source: An Unorthodox Match
“It was Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto, Francesca Abraham realized as the radio alarm went off. Lively, unrelentingly upbeat, it was the perfect tempo in which to start the day. Covering her head with a pillow, she reached out blindly and urgently, desperate to shut the damn thing off.” PerfectMusicRadioDamnDesperatePillowCoveringAlarmsAbrahamLivelyTempoStart The DayDamn ThingsUpbeatVivaldi Book:The Ghost of Hannah Mendes Source: The Ghost of Hannah Mendes
“Even her hair, she thought, running her fingers impatiently through the damp golden brown ringlets that curled romantically around her face. A Botticelli angel, a boy in college once called her, begging her to let it grow. Right! That was all she needed: wild curls cascading down her back like a doomed Shakespearian virgin, or a rock star.” RunningFacesStarsGrowsMusicBoysRocksCollegeHairNeededAngelFingersGoldenBrownDoomedVirginsRock StarBeggingCurlsDampBotticelli Book:The Ghost of Hannah Mendes Source: The Ghost of Hannah Mendes
“Books were like old friends, with their worn covers and well-thumbed pages.” WellsBookPagesWornOld Friends Book:Jephte's Daughter Source: Jephte's Daughter
“When a man and woman married, nothing they did together had any shame or immodesty. It was all in the name of God. There was fruitfulness and joy in it, and it followed the Creator's own plan for continuing the human race.” MenHumansTogetherJoyNamesRacePlansMarriedMen And WomenShameCreatorHuman RaceContinuingFruitfulness Book:Jephte's Daughter Source: Jephte's Daughter
“Women were naturally pure souls, on so much higher a spiritual plane to begin with than men.” MenSoulSpiritualHigherPurePlanesPure Soul Book:Jephte's Daughter Source: Jephte's Daughter
“...self-important western journalists who'd given up their sacred trust to become cheerleaders for trendy causes, the way communist journalists had once been cheerleaders for the government...They were depriving the free world of its most valuable weapon in condemning and exposing the worst human scourge since Nazism: the targeting and murder of civilians to achieve political and religious ends.” WorldWayHumansImportantEndsSelfGovernmentPoliticalGivenCausesReligiousAchieveWorstWeaponsMurderSacredWesternValuableJournalistCommunistCiviliansGiven UpNazismExposingCondemningCheerleaderScourgeFree WorldTrendyDepriving Author:Naomi Ragen
“How do they manage to go on living?.....By loving life. And-in spite of everything-by loving God. By having enough faith to start over again and again; enough faith to risk having our hearts break all over again. That's the true meaning of faith. It's the deepest kind of heroism.” HeartKindEnoughBreakRiskGoes OnManageSpiteHeroismAgain And AgainStarting OverLoving GodLoving LifeHeart BreakTrue Meaning Author:Naomi Ragen
“Suffering did different things to different people...Some souls became tempered, unshakable in their faith, while others became twisted and mis-shapen, throwing off all connection to God.” PeopleDifferentSoulSufferingConnectionsDifferent ThingsThrowingTwistedDifferent PeoplesUnshakable Author:Naomi Ragen