“We must not make a false faith by hiding from our thoughts the causes of doubt, for faith is the highest achievement of the human intellect.”

Insisting that genuine faith must confront rather than suppress doubt · Per Amica Silentia Lunae, Anima Hominis

• Belief
• Faith
• Truth

“For I think the world wider than I once thought it, and I see God's love broader than I once saw it.”

Expressing the expansion of her religious understanding through solitude and suffering · Letter to H. S. Boyd, March 1845

• Faith
• Growth
• Love

“I do not quite see why I should pray, or to whom I should pray; and yet pray I must.”

Capturing the tension between religious uncertainty and spiritual instinct · Essay, David Gray and Other Essays

• Belief
• Faith
• Mystery

“I have been carefully weaned from this world, and do delight to think of the happy land that cannot be far off now.”

Facing mortality with a strong sense of spiritual anticipation · Letter to her Dublin correspondent, 1 May 1844

• Faith
• Hope
• Mortality

“There is a pleasure in being convinced that this is not the place of my rest.”

An expression of the religious consolation she found while approaching death · Letter to her Dublin correspondent, 1 May 1844

• Consolation
• Death
• Faith

“I delight in seeing all merely human anticipations contradicted by the high and gracious power that overrules all. What is to come we know not, but surely much praise is due for the present.”

Combining uncertainty about the future with gratitude for the present · Letter to her Dublin correspondent, 1834

• Faith
• Gratitude
• Hope

“Thus you see how pure Christianity will not fit in with pure patriotism.”

Recognising a conflict between Christian teaching and unquestioning national loyalty · Letter to Susan Owen, May 1917

• Faith
• Principle
• War

“Suffer dishonour and disgrace, but never resort to arms. Be bullied, be outraged, be killed; but do not kill.”

Setting Christian non-violence against the demands of military and patriotic duty · Letter to Susan Owen, May 1917

• Faith
• Morality
• Violence

“Why, the very element of poetry is faith—faith in the beautiful, the divine, and the true.”

Describing poetry as rooted in belief in beauty and truth · Essay, The Criticism of Chateaubriand

• Beauty
• Faith
• Poetry

“When I begin to pray I have so much to thank Him for, that I hardly know how to stop.”

Finding gratitude still possible in the midst of personal bereavement · Letter to Miss Lord, 31 January 1849

• Faith
• Gratitude
• Grief

“We make the most of it as long as we must stay in it; but the under-current bears home.”

Balancing engagement with earthly life against a strong sense of spiritual homecoming · Letter from Dorset, 27 July 1873

• Faith
• Home
• Life

“It seems to me we are meant to use all the faculties God gives us; to abuse them is another thing.”

Distinguishing the healthy use of human abilities from their misuse · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 27 February 1877

• Faith
• Skill
• Work

“We enjoy seeing our children enjoy their work and their play; is our Father unwilling to let us enjoy ours?”

Arguing that faith need not exclude innocent pleasure and creativity · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 27 February 1877

• Faith
• Joy
• Work

“Holiness is not a mere abstraction; it is praying and loving and being consecrate, but it is also the doing kind deeds, speaking friendly words.”

Defining spiritual life through ordinary acts of kindness as well as devotion · Letter to Miss E. S. Gilman, 29 April 1871

• Faith
• Kindness
• Work

“We live in a mystery, and shall never be satisfied till we see Him as He is.”

Acknowledging the limits of human understanding in matters of faith · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 2 May 1876

• Faith
• Knowledge
• Mystery

“Let us take our lot in life just as it comes, courageously, patiently, and faithfully.”

Advocating courage and patience in accepting life's circumstances · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 14 February 1877

• Courage
• Faith
• Patience

“To love Christ more—this is the deepest need, the constant cry of my soul.”

A concise expression of the spiritual longing that shaped her life and writing · Letter to a young relative, 23 September 1873

• Faith
• Longing
• Love

“God never places us in any position in which we can not grow.”

Seeing difficult circumstances as opportunities for inward growth · Letter to a friend in Texas, 1 December 1873

• Faith
• Growth
• Perseverance

“I do most certainly believe that the Supream Magistrate hath some Power, but not all Power in matters of Religion.”

Drawing a firm boundary between political authority and religious conscience · The Rehearsal Transpros'd: The Second Part

• Faith
• Freedom
• Power

“I am (if I may say it with reverence) drawn in, I hope by a good Providence, to intermeddle in a noble and high argument.”

Recognising the seriousness of an argument larger than personal controversy · Letter to Sir Edward Harley, 3 May 1673

• Duty
• Faith
• Writing

“How unendurable would life be if it were not for the belief that we shall meet again in a better state of existence.”

Finding consolation for separation and loss in the hope of reunion after death · Letter to Neville White, 8 November 1814

• Consolation
• Death
• Faith

“Of course I want to come to you, very much as I want to come to Heaven.”

An unusually candid statement of affection and longing · Letter to Katharine Coman, 1891

• Faith
• Longing
• Love

“I am a great believer in new light, but let us always remember that the source of light is the same, and keep our eyes open to see it growing brighter and brighter until noon.”

Original: Yr wyf fi yn gredwr mawr mewn goleuni newydd, ond dewch i ni gael cofio o hyd, mai yr un yw ffynhonnell goleuni, a chadw'n llygaid yn agored i'w weled yn myned fwy—fwy hyd hanner dydd. — Welcoming new understanding while retaining a sense of an enduring spiritual source · Sermon, Sul y Blodau, 31 March 1903 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Hope
• Truth

“We are more inclined to create darkness than to bring forth light. The weary years and black nights are our creations; the dawn, the light and the day belong to God.”

Original: Yr ydym ni yn fwy tueddol i greu tywyllwch na gwawrio goleuni, y cyfnodau, a'r tymhorau, a'r blynyddau blinion, a'r nosweithiau duon yw'n creadigaethau ni; Duw biau'r wawr, a'r goleuni, a'r dydd! — Contrasting humanity's darkness with the renewing light he attributes to God · Sermon, Sul y Blodau, 31 March 1903 (Welsh)

• Faith
• Hope
• Light