Alvin M. Johnston quotes

  • God's irony: that in order to fight and defeat the threat of terrorism, we shall have to be clear about the principle of justice that allows us to understand what is evil in terrorism. And that principle of justice is the claim of justice that is inherent in every innocent human life. But if that claim was there in the Twin Towers, if it was there on the airplanes that those terrorists attacked, you explain to me why it is not there in the womb!

  • The idea of a terrorist attack that assaults innocent human beings in a building or a mall or a restaurant is bad enough. Yet the terrorist mind that looks at a passenger plane and sees the fuel and the intensity of the blast, and sees the rocket engines that will carry it into the heart of destruction like a cruise missile, but who does not see the humanity of one single soul on that airplane, is the chilling truth of what we're up against.

  • It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.

  • We attain freedom as we let go of whatever does not reflect our magnificence. A bird cannot fly high or far with a stone tied to its back. But release the impediment, and we are free to soar to unprecedented heights.

  • In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.

  • Every true writer is like a bird; he repeats the same song, the same theme, all his life. For me, this theme as always been revolt.

  • Peter," she whispered and reached out, touching his cheek. "My little Peterbird? You flew back to me.

  • Maybe all spirits flew to Paris, not only French ones. Could you haunt a place you'd never been?

  • I became the butterfly. I got out of the cocoon, and I flew.

  • Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there.