Are we permitted to speak to God of our own wishes, and our own affairs? It may be said that both are right—those who do so in trustful simplicity, and those who in reverence refrain.

To think of God is an act.

Our immortality is revealed to us by an inner message breathed at birth into the soul. God Himself when He created us implanted this word, engraved this truth, of which the tones and tokens are indestructible. But, in doing this, God whispers to us and enlightens us secretly. To catch His accents, we must have an inner silence; to see His light, the senses must be closed, and we must look within.

God loves the soul, and as there is a force that draws the soul to God, so is there also, if I dare say so, one that draws God to the soul. He makes the soul his delight.

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Excerpts from the Notes of Joseph Joubert, translated by K. Lyttelton