“But for most people, to be able to simplify issues so as to see only the definite external enemy is extremely exhilarating and brings about the bright eye and the springy step that go so well with the political uniform. This is an exhilaration that the Christian must deny himself. It comes from an artificial stimulant bound to have bad after-effects. It causes pride either individual or collective, and pride brings its own doom. For only in humility, charity, and purity–and most of all perhaps humility–can we be prepared to receive the grace of God without which human operations are vain.”
T. S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1940/1949, page 75.
Gary Chorpenning's Notebooks 