Father Isaac Hecker

Man is here for a clear and evident purpose, and it is his first duty to know it. There are some who are honest at first, but who, after a faint resistance, sink down on a lower range of feelings, and yield themselves up to an ignoble life. But there is a class of souls who cannot set aside their higher aspirations if they would; nor would they set them aside if they had the power. They believe that the highest prerogative of man's reason is to know what his destiny is, and that the holiest employment of the energies of his will is to be directed to the realization of the great gift of his existence.