Violence is a force which can be used for good or evil, and among other things taken by it is the kingdom of heaven.
—Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
The only time [the freak] should be disturbing to us is when he is held up as a whole man.
—Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
Ours is the first age in history which has asked the child what he would tolerate learning.
—Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
Part of [the modern world is] trying to eliminate mystery while another part tries to rediscover it in disciplines less personally demanding than religion.
—Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
I even dislike the concept artist when it sets you above, all it is is working in a certain kind of medium to make something right. The material is no more exalted than any other kind of material and the idea of making it right is what should be applied to all making.
—Flannery O’Connor
The Catholic writer, insofar as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mystery: that it has, for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for.
—Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
There is nothing in our faith that implies a foregone optimism for man so free that with his last breath he can say No.
—Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
Those who have no absolute values cannot let the relative remain merely relative; they are always raising it to the level of the absolute.
—Flannery O’Connor (via dailyflanneryoc)
The Catholic, using his own eyes and the eyes of the Church (when he is inclined to open them) is in a most favorable position to recognize the grotesque…
—Flannery O’Connor
You will continue to have my limp, obfuscating, and airless prayers.
—Flannery O’Connor
