Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Alcuin
God of the true and highest life,
In whom and by whom and through whom each alone lives truly:
God in whom are found, and from whom spring, goodness and beauty;
Through whom all that is good and beautiful exists,
And to whom all that exists is good and lovely:
O God, to whom faith arouses us, hope lifts us up and love unites: O blessed Trinity.
Alcuin
God of the true and highest life,
In whom and by whom and through whom each alone lives truly:
God in whom are found, and from whom spring, goodness and beauty;
Through whom all that is good and beautiful exists,
And to whom all that exists is good and lovely:
O God, to whom faith arouses us, hope lifts us up and love unites: O blessed Trinity.
George MacDonald
For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection, even that itself may be perfected––not in itself, but in the object. As it was love that first created humanity, so even human love, in proportion to its divinity, will go on creating the beautiful for its own outpouring. There is nothing eternal but that which loves and can be loved, and love is ever climbing toward the consummation when such shall be the universe, imperishable, divine.
Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed.
And our God is a consuming fire.
G.K. Chesterton
My first and last philosophy, that which I believe in with unbroken certainty, I learnt in the nursery. I generally learnt it from a nurse; that is, from the solemn and star-appointed priestess at once of democracy and tradition. The things I believed most then, the things I believe most now, are the things called fairy tales. They seem to me to be the entirely reasonable things. They are not fantasies; compared with them other things are fantastic.
C.S. Lewis
Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.
William Blake
Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.
William Morris
Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
Benjamin Wolaver
The more I think about Scripture, the more 'implausible' our cosmic story seems. Two magic trees, a flooded world, the Promised Land, ten ludicrous plagues, the fire on Sinai, the voice of God, the Holy of Holies, power-wielding prophets, the God Man, twelve apostles for twelve tribes, a global mission, a villainous 'Man of Lawlessness', a final battle, a future resurrection. If you think about it, it seems pretty outrageous…which is why it's so brilliant.
