“I will simply not do penance.”

“Sunday school: A prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.”

“I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not ask of me.”

“Be at peace; place everything on my shoulders. I will take care of it. I give my penitents only small penances because I do the rest myself.”

“He saith: Accuse not self overdone much, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all for thy fault; for I will not that thou be heavy or sorrowful indiscreetly. For I tell thee, howsoever thou do, thou shalt have woe. And therefore I will that thou wisely know thy penance; and shalt see in truth that all thy living is penance profitable.”

“I avoid that bleak first hour of the working day during which my still sluggish senses and body make every chore a penance. I find that in arriving later, the work which I do perform is of a much higher quality.”

“My conscience is clear. I was simply doing my duty…”

“I do not quote from the scriptures;
I simply see what I see.”

“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.”

“When someone tells me "no," it doesn't mean I can't do it, it simply means I can't do it with them.”