It is not funny that anything else should fall down only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

We cannot know the whole truth which belongs to God alone but our task nevertheless is to seek to know what is true. And if we offend gravely enough against what we know to be true as by failing badly enough to deal affectionately and responsibly with our land and our neighbors truth will retaliate with ugliness poverty and disease.