Hans Urs von Balthasar

“Mary is the archetype of the church.”

“Every experience of beauty points to infinity.”

“Beauty is the last thing which the thinking intellect dares to approach.”

“It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to track his Master.”

“To be a child is to be other-centered.”

“A holy person is a human being in whom the mystery of the God-man is no longer a paradox but a living reality.”

“Contemplation is nothing else than a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love.”

“The ultimate criterion of the truth of a theology is the holiness it produces.”

“The world will be saved by beauty.”

“The word of God is a sword, a fire, a hammer that breaks the rock.”

“The first step is to be willing to not know.”

“Being a Christian is not a matter of adhering to a certain set of beliefs, but of being totally captivated by the person of Christ.”

“Love alone is credible. Nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed.”

“What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.”

“The saints are the truly realistic people.”

“Only the humble believe.”

“God's truth is not a doctrine, a system, a law, a science, but a Person.”

“The Church is the new creation, it is life and not a doctrine.”

“Man is the being who is 'addressed' and who is an 'answer'.”

“The Cross is the eternal expression of the extent to which God is prepared to go in order to seek out and save what is lost.”