“Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.”

The Way to Divine Knowledge (1762).
Context: If Reason seems to have any Power against Religion, it is only where Religion is become a dead Form, has lost its true State, and is dwindled into Opinion; and when this is the Case, that Religion stands only as a well-grounded Opinion, then indeed it is always liable to be shaken; either by having its own Credibility lessened, or that of a contrary Opinion increased. But when Religion is that which it should be, not a Notion or Opinion, but a real Life growing up in God, then Reason has just as much power to stop its Course, as the barking Dog to stop the Course of the Moon. For true and genuine Religion is Nature, is Life, and the Working of Life; and therefore, wherever it is, Reason has no more Power over it, than over the Roots that grow secretly in the Earth, or the Life that is working in the highest Heavens. If therefore you are afraid of Reason hurting your Religion, it is a Sign, that your Religion is not yet as it should be, is not a self-evident Growth of Nature and Life within you, but has much of mere Opinion in it.

Source: The Lottery (1948)

Source: Words during battle, Quoted in Francis Parkman's Wolfe

Source: Lover Revealed

Spiritual Canticle of The Soul and The Bridegroom
Context: If, then, on the common land
I am no longer seen or found,
You will say that I am lost;
That, being enamoured,
I lost myself; and yet was found. ~ 29

Source: We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism (2009)

Source: From Here to Eternity

The Almost Perfect State (1921)
Context: The individual aspiration is always defeated of its perfect fruition and expression, but it is never lost; it passes into the conglomerate being of the race.
The way to encourage yourself about the human race is to look at it first from a distance; look at the lights on the high spots.

Source: Zorba the Greek (1946), Ch. 12