“A spiritual life without a very large allowance of disquietude in it is no spiritual life at all.”

— Frederick William Faber, Spiritual Conferences (1859), Ch. III, § 2, pp. 199-200

About Frederick William Faber

1814 – 1863

English Catholic priest and hymn writer.

“Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning.”

“Faith is a letting down our nets into the untransparent deeps at the divine command, not knowing what we shall take.”

“The buried talent is the sunken rock on which most lives strike and founder.”

“The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.”

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”