Just some treasures from Surprised by Oxford:

"Anything not done in submission ot God, anything not done to the glory of God, is doomed to failure, frailty, and futility. This is the unholy trinity we humans fear most." - Dr. Deveroux, undergrad professor of Carolyn's at her public university

"There is nothing as pitiful as a young cynic, because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing."
- Maya Angelou

"Even Oxford's infrastructure was conducive to contemplation, revelation. Its walls seemed infused with mystery... It was tempting to think that resting my head against htis stony chest would betray a heartbeat, or by putting my ear to this shell, I could hear the distant but undeniable advancing and then retreating of whispered wisdom." [so true, may I add!]

"Life is messy. Life is beatuiful and terrible and messy. So why would we expect a faith in this life that is easy to understand?"

"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor." - Soren Kierkegaard

"Any student of literature knows that metaphor is far more precise than the literal..." [YES!]

"Books become alive not only when read, but when shared..."

"A happy ending makes up for a lot."

- TDH (tall, dark, and handsome)

"You're going to need all the fire you can get if you're going to be a woman and a believer, in academia." - a former Oxford professor and mom, offering Carolyn whiskey, haha

"The only God worth believing in is a dancing God..."

- Friederich Nietzsche [for once, we completely agree]

After quoting Jane Austen, Carolyn muses, "dead authors really do make the best friends."

And finally, at the risk of making me actually like him:

"The world surely, has not another place like Oxford: it is a despair to see such a place and ever to leave it."

- Nathaniel Hawthorne