Quotes

There is no new thing under the Sun’ (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 and 3:15), except the new creature in Jesus Christ. Only the radical change of heart in Jesus Christ is new. Only grace and the Holy Ghost is new. Everything else is as old as the hills. All discovery is only the uncovering of what is already there. In repentance and grace there is new creation. All else is the spinning out of laws and norms spun out a million times before. Repetition, repetition of the same thing. No essential newness.

I am only interested in ultimate matters.  It is not easy in man’s confused and mixed motives to single out anything pure.  But if I accepted my present responsibilities, I can say in all truth that the dominant motive was the possibility of being of some service to my Lord and country.  There is no meaning to life apart from him and his service.

Our aim is that Lebanon enjoy the clear distinction of being the only country in the Middle East in which the problem of minorities has received its complete resolution.

The Christian society in Lebanon occupies a special position owing to the fact that it has been free and has enjoyed a continuous history down the centuries.  For this reason, the Lebanon we want to build up is anxious that the Christians in it remain in fact free, secure and masters of themselves and of their own values and destiny…

The tragedy of the world today is that the traditions which embody the deepest truth are not bothering clearly, sufficiently, responsibly, boldly to articulate themselves. 

In this age of marching materialism, it is difficult to champion the cause of the spirit and mind of man; it is difficult to impress on the international community that even after man is fully secure in his so-called ‘economic rights’ he may still be not-man. But unless man's proper nature, unless his mind and spirit are brought out, set apart, protected and promoted, the struggle for human rights is a sham and a mockery. 

If it is to understand its own historic position in its true light, Communism must thoroughly understand the fact that it is standing face to face with, and rebelling against, the West—the Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Christian, humane traditions of the West—and not only the unhappy West of secularism, liberalism, capitalism, and imperialism.

The real struggle today is between those who believe in authentic, responsible, existential, and personal freedom and those who enjoy its protection in order to ‘use’ it for other ends.

Under no circumstances should any obstacles be placed in the way of responsible investigative reason seeking to understand anything.  The peoples and cultures that hinder reason and prevent it from exploring any subject responsibly will themselves go extinct, or they will be enslaved or continue to languish in slavery.

Because we are with others, we are arguing and reasoning with one another all the time.  Indeed, every sentence and every discourse is a product of reason.  And so it is neither a shame nor a sin to discipline and cultivate our reason to the utmost; it is a necessity, it is a duty, it is an honor to do so.

My first and foremost concern in all matters is the real and given truth in itself; be it a partial truth or the complete one, be it tangible or intellectual, material or spiritual, imperfect or perfect, finite or infinite, created or creative, ephemeral or eternal. I believe that the real truth exists, and whoever seeks it properly may not miss it.

Two lights alone guide us: truth and love. In their company alone we propose to walk, and if we stray from the right path, it cannot be the fault of our lights, but our own.