Lord Acton (Catholic historian): “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” — Gary Wills (Catholic): “Most people are familiar with Acton’s famous axiom…. Fewer people remember that he was speaking of papal absolutism.”

Quoted in Wills, Papal Sin, 2.

God forbid that I should limit the time of acquiring faith to the present life. In the depth of the Divine mercy there may be opportunity to win it in the future. —Martin Luther

“The Memra has a place above the angels as that agent of the Deity who sustains the course of nature and personifies the Law.”37 37Edwards, “Justin’s Logos,” 263.

It is written, they [the Arians] say: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." But it is not to be wondered at if they who have corrupted the sacred Scriptures, have also falsified this passage. The reason for which it seems to have been inserted is perfectly plain, so long as it is applied to unfold such blasphemy.

Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Christian faith, 5.16.192 in NPNF2 10:308.

“When St. Peter, full of an human good love towards Christ, advised him to avoid his sufferings, Christ rejected him with a ‘Get thee behind me, Satan,’ and only gave this reason for it, ‘for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.’ A plain proof, that whatever is not of and from the Holy Spirit of God in us, however plausible it may outwardly seem to men, to their wisdom, and human goodness, is yet in itself nothing else but the power of Satan within us.”
William Law

It would probably not be an exaggeration to say that disobedience is one of the main characteristics of modern Christianity. We know what Jesus teaches but we do not do it. Disobedience in sexual morals, in relationships, in attitudes to those who make life hard for us. Disobedience in lack of hospitality, in begrudging our money, in unwillingness for change. Our disobedience is not marginal to our lives: it is central. We do not make time to spend with God, but give it all to our work and our pleasure. We do not set our affections on things above and find treasure in heaven, but are more materialistic than any previous generation has ever been. We do not obey the Lord's last command to go and make disciples. Instead we are hesitant about the content of the good news, and reluctant to talk about it.
Micheal Green
Thirty years that changed the world .
Chapter 6 ,1

On the contrary, according to the Christian tradition the main significance of mystical perception is that. it is an integral part of that personal relationship with God that is the fundamental aim and consummation of human life. Without God and me being aware of each other in a way that, on my side, is properly called 'perception', there could be no intimate relationship of love, devotion, and dialogue that, according to Christianity, constitutes our highest good.

William Alston perceiving God page 12

A choice! Yes, this is the pearl of great price, yet it is not intended to be buried and hidden away. A choice that is not used is worse than nothing; it is a snare in which a person has trapped himself as a slave who did not become free – by choosing. It is a good thing that you can never be rid of it. It remains with you, and if you do not use it, it becomes a curse. A choice – not between red and green, not between silver and gold – no, a choice between God and the world! Do you know anything in comparison to choice? Do you know of any more overwhelming and humbling expression for God’s condescension and extravagance towards us human beings than that he places himself, so to say, on the same level of choice with the world, just so that we may be able to choose; that God, if language dare speak thus, woos humankind – that he, the eternally strong one, woos sapless humanity? Yet, how insignificant is the young lover’s choice between her pursuers by comparison with this choice between God and the world!
Soren Kierkegaard