touchstone archives
Commonplaces
Piquant excerpts lifted from Touchstone editors' own reading & listening.
What a frail and fragile thing is human life! A bullet passes through the living flesh and it ceases to live. But a bullet cannot kill the soul; one knows, most assuredly, that the Spirit—God’s breath in man—returns to God Who gave it. Oh! one must believe and trust in God’s mercy, otherwise these frightful sights would work havoc with one’s brain; and one’s heart would faint with the depth of its despair.
—Florence Farmborough
With the Armies of the Tsar: A Nurse at the Russian Front 1914–1918 (1974)
All content © The Fellowship of St. James — 2025. All rights reserved.
Returns, refunds, and privacy policy.