1
The image of a wood has appeared often enough in English verse. It has indeed appeared so often that it has gathered a good deal of verse into itself; so that it has become a great forest where, with long leagues of changing green between them, strange episodes of poetry have taken place. Thus in one part there are lovers of a midsummer night, or by day a duke and his followers, and in another men behind branches so that the wood seems moving, and in another a girl separated from her two lordly young brothers, and in another a poet listening to a nightingale but rather dreaming richly of the grand art than there exploring it, and there are other inhabitants, belonging even more closely to the wood, dryads, fairies, an enchanter's rout. The forest itself has different names in different tongues- Westermain, Arden, Birnam, Broceliande; and in places there are separate trees named, such as that on the outskirts against which a young Northern poet saw a spectral wanderer leaning, or, in the unexplored centre of which only rumours reach even poetry, Igdrasil of one myth, or the Trees of Knowledge and Life of another. So that indeed the whole earth seems to become this one enormous forest, and our longest and most stable civilizations are only clearings in the midst of it.Charles Williams
2
But it was a religion which enabled him to despise himself and everyone else without despising the universe, thus allowing him at once in argument or conversation to the advantages of the pessimist and the optimist.Charles Williams
3
I generally give the title-page a fair chance, " Roger said. "Once can't always judge books merely by the cover.Charles Williams
4
An hour's conversation on literature between two ardent minds with a common devotion to a neglected poet is a miraculous road to intimacy.Charles Williams
5
. Nature's so terribly good. Don't you think so, Mr. Stanhope?"Stanhope was standing by, silent, while Mrs. Parry communed with her soul and with one or two of her neighbours on the possibilities of dressing the Chorus. He turned his head and answered, "That Nature is terribly good? Yes, Miss Fox. You do mean 'terribly'?""Why, certainly, " Miss Fox said. "Terribly--dreadfully--very.""Yes, " Stanhope said again. "Very. Only--you must forgive me; it comes from doing so much writing, but when I say 'terribly' I think I mean 'full of terror'. A dreadful goodness."" I don't see how goodness can be dreadful, " Miss Fox said, with a shade of resentment in her voice. "If things are good they're not terrifying, are they?"" It was you who said 'terribly', " Stanhope reminded her with a smile, "I only agreed."" And if things are terrifying, " Pauline put in, her eyes half closed and her head turned away as if she asked a casual question rather of the world than of him, "can they be good?" He looked down on her. "Yes, surely, " he said, with more energy. "Are our tremors to measure the Omnipotence? .Charles Williams
6
The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse.Charles Williams
7
There is no possible idea, " Kenneth thought as he came onto the terrace, "to which the mind of man can't supply some damned alternative or other. Yet one must act.Charles Williams
8
, Stanhope delayed a moment behind Miss Fox to add: "The substantive, of course, governs the adjective; not the other way round."" The substantive?" Pauline asked blankly." Good. It contains terror, not terror good. I'm keeping you. Good-bye, Periel, " and he was gone.Charles Williams
9
It may be a movement towards becoming like little children to admit that we are generally nothing else.Charles Williams
10
The Church expected the Second Coming of Christ immediately. The converts had known a first coming. And then? And then! That was the trouble – the then. He had come, and they adored and believed, they communicated and practiced, and waited. The then lasted, and there seemed to be no farther equivalent Now. Time became the individual and catholic problem. The Church had to become as universal and as durable – as time. .Charles Williams
11
The Church expected the Second Coming of Christ immediately, and no doubt this was so in the ordinary literal sense. But it was certainly expected also in another sense. The converts in all the cities of Asia and (soon) of Europe where the small groups were founded had known, in their conversion, one way or another, a first coming of their Redeemer. And then? And then! That was the consequent task and trouble – the then. He had come, and they adored and believed, they communicated and practiced, and waited for his further exhibition of himself. The then lasted, and there seemed to be no farther equivalent Now. Time became the individual and catholic problem. The Church had to become as catholic – as universal and as durable – as time.Charles Williams
12
Have you by any chance an edition of St. Ignatius's treatise against the Gnostics?" he asked in a low clear voice. The young assistant looked gravely back. "Not for sale, I'm afraid, " he said. "Nor, if it comes to that, the Gnostic treatises against St. Ignatius." "Quite, " Anthony answered.Charles Williams
13
The altar must be built in one place so that the fire may come down in another place.Charles Williams
14
It’s said that the shuffling of the cards is the earth, and the pattering of the cards is the rain, and the beating of the cards is the wind, and the pointing of the cards is the fire. That’s of the four suits. But the Greater Trumps, it’s said, are the meaning of all process and the measure of the everlasting dance.Charles Williams
15
Hell is indefinite.Charles Williams
16
Job plunges into a series of demands on and accusations of God which may be and indeed are epigrams of high intelligence, but are not noticeably patient.Charles Williams
17
Many promising reconciliations have broken down because while both parties come prepared to forgive, neither party come prepared to be forgiven.Charles Williams
18
I think in order to move forward into the future, you need to know where you've been.Charles Williams