“...we were subjected to conditions that were deplorable - even subhuman - and yet I was delighted simply to be with people once again.” (p. 86)

“This tendency to look on human nature, especially so-called ‘fallen human nature,’ as ignoble and debased, sinful, and therefore contemptible, in constant need to be checked and controlled by the nobler part of man, has remained in some form or other as part of traditional Christian spirituality. And I think it is wrong. It is Gnosticism and Manichaeism and Catharism and Albigensianism and Jansenism and every heretical tendency that sees matter as evil and the flesh as prone to evil. For whatever reason, it is always the poor old body that gets the worst of it, as if the mind and the will never had any sinful thoughts or inclinations, as if sin did not consist precisely in setting one’s will (not the body) against God’s will.” (p. 98)

“For each of us, salvation means no more and no less than taking up daily the same cross of Christ, accepting each day what it brings as the will of God, offering back to God each morning all the joys, works, and suffering of that day. But those are abstract words. What it means, in practice, is spelled out as always by the poor old body. … and when at last we are parted from it in death, it surely deserves whatever rest it can get before it rises to be glorified at the last judgment.” (p. 101)

On his work in the labor camp: “And yet I did take pride in it. I did each job as best I could. I worked to the limit of my strength each day and did as much as my health and endurance under the circumstances made possible. … The labor I did was not a punishment, but a way of working out my salvation in fear and trembling. Work was not a curse, even the brutish grunt work I was doing, but a way to God - and perhaps even a way to help others to God. I could not, therefore, look upon this work as degrading; it was ennobling, for it came to me from the hand of God himself. It was his will for me.” (p. 106)

“This simple truth, that the sole purpose of man’s life on earth is to do the will of God, contains in it riches and resources enough for a lifetime. Once you have learned to live with it uppermost in mind, to see each day and each day’s activities in its light, it becomes more than a source of eternal salvation; it becomes a source of joy and happiness here on earth.” (p. 123)

“The grinding routine of daily labor, even here in Siberia, could have a meaning, did have a value, even as the lives of all men everywhere - no matter how dull or routine or insignificant they might seem to the eyes of men - have a value and a meaning in God’s providence.” (p. 148)