from the first 100 pages...

"well, as i was saying, the world is eaten up by boredom. to perceive this needs little preliminary thought: you can't see it all at once. it is like dust. you go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. it is sifted so fine, it doesn't even grit on your teeth but stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands. to shake off this drizzle of ashes you must be forever on the go. and so people are always 'on the go.' perhaps the answer would be that the world has long been familiar with boredom, that such is the true condition of man. no doubt the seed was scattered all over life, and here and there found a fertile soil to take root..."

"when writing of oneself one should show no mercy. yet why at the first attempt to discover one's own truth does all inner strength seem to melt away in floods of self-pity and rising tears..."

"i dare not say i knew nothing of god when i was twelve years old, because mingled with so many other calls like thunder and rushing water sounding through my poor little head, already i could recognize His voice."

"geologists teach us that the very ground which seems so solid in reality is only a thin film over an ocean of liquid fire forever trembling like the skin on milk about to boil... how far down would one need to dig to rediscover the blue depths?"

"to judge us by what we call our actions is probably as futile as to judge us by our dreams."

some excerpts from georges bernanos diary of a country priest