An effective charade (δράμα)

"There was a money-changer in a city, one of whose inhabitants came bringing him a precious stone worth five hundred pieces of gold.  'Take this stone,' he said, 'and provide me with a portion of its value when need arises,' but there was nobody there when he gave him the stone.  One of the illustrious persons of the city, however, was outside the Exchange walking back [home].  He was listening and saw that he gave him the stone, but the money-changer did not know he was listening.  Some days later, he who gave the stone came and said to the money-changer:  'Give me [something] on the stone, for I have need.'  He, confident that there was no one present when the other gave him the stone, refused, saying:  'You never gave me anything.'  As he came out of there in an agitated state, that illustrious person met him and said to him:  'What is the matter?'  He told him about the affair and the other said to him:  'Did you really give it to him?'  Yes', he said, and [that person] said to him:  'Tell him:  'Come and assure me at Saint Andrew's' and that will suffice for you',—for there was a martyrion of Saint Andrew there.  When [the money-changer] was going to take the oath, that illustrious person took his slave and went to Saint Andrew's, saying to his slave:  'Whatever I do this day, do not be disturbed; just be patient.'  Coming into the martyr's chapel, he took off his clothing and began behaving like one possessed of a demon, crying out in a disorderly manner.  When they came in, he began to say:  'Saint Andrew says:  "Look:  this wicked fellow took the man's five hundred gold pieces and he wants to swear falsely by me."'  Then he went out and took him by the throat saying:  'Saint Andrew says:  "Give up the man's five hundred gold pieces."'  The other, troubled and terrified, confessed, saying:  'I am bringing them', but [the person] said:  'Bring them right now.'  Off he went and promptly brought them; the pseudo-demoniac said to the owner of the money:  'Saint Andrew says:  "Put six pieces of gold on the [holy] table"' and he gladly put [them there].  When they were gone [that person] took his clothes, dressed decently and went walking by the Exchange again, as usual.  The money-changer looked him up and down when he saw him and that illustrious person said to him:  'Why are you staring at me, friend?  Believe me, by the grace of Christ, I have no demon; but, since I was walking outside when the man gave you the stone, I heard and saw clearly.  And in case they said to you:  'You have to say that a single [witness] is not believed' I decided to enact this charade to prevent you from losing your soul and the man from being wickedly deprived of what is his.'"

     Anonymous saying of the Desert Fathers no. 48 (=BHG 1328g, de ponderatore).  The anonymous sayings of the Desert Fathers:  a select edition and complete English translation, ed. & trans. John Wortley (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2013), 44-45.
     This one is striking for its secularity.  The saint does nothing overtly, and the city father (Εἷς . . . τῶν λαμπρῶν τῆς πόλεως) everything.

Comber on the use of forms

"we can pray by this Form with as much Zeal and more Knowledge, with as much Spirit and more Truth, than by any other kind of Prayer."

     Thomas Comber, A companion to the Temple, or A help to devotion in the use of the Common prayer (1672-76/1684), as quoted in Prayer book spirituality, ed. J. Robert Wright (New York:  The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1989), 36, under "The mistaken dissenters".

Johnson on the use of forms

"let me farther assure you, that now after near forty years use of our excellent method of worship, . . . it is so far from growing tedious or a matter of formality, as some imagine, that every opportunity seems to add fresh life, and I see fresh beauties, and find further advantages in it from time to time."

     Samuel Johnson, On the beauty of holiness in the worship of the Church of England (1749), as quoted in Prayer book spirituality, ed. J. Robert Wright (New York:  The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1989), 51.

"the habitat of natural gifts is the natural man."

"beware of showing God's grace and its work at such disadvantage as to make the few whom it has thoroughly influenced compete in intellect with the vast multitude who either have it not, or use it ill.  The elect are few to choose out of, and the world is inexhaustible.  From the first, Jabel and Tubalcain, Nimrod 'the stout hunter', the learning of the Pharaohs, and the wisdom of the East country, are of the world.  Every now and then they are rivalled by a Solomon or a Beseleel, but the habitat of natural gifts is the natural man."

     John Henry Newman, The idea of a university defined and illustrated, Discourse IX.7 (ed. I. T. Ker (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1976), 196).

"the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end"

"If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society.  Its art is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world.  It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand, nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other.  Works indeed of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule; a University is not a birthplace of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or conquerors of nations.  It does not promise a generation of Aristotles or Newtons, of Napoleons or Washingtons, of Raphaels or Shakespeares, though such miracles of nature it has before now contained within its precincts.  Nor is it content on the other hand with forming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the engineer, though such too it includes within its scope.  But a University training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end. . . ."

     John Henry Newman, The idea of a university defined and illustrated, Discourse VII.10 (ed. I. T. Ker (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1976), 154).
     Note the word "must" in that first sentence.  In the two previous Discources Newman has argued that "Knowledge" (or, rather, the inculcation of the habit of thinking about what one has learned) is "Its Own End" above all (V).
     Note, too, that Newman does not claim that "a University training is the [only] means" to the inculcation of a habit of "Thought or Reason exercised upon Knowledge" (VI.7 (pp. 124-125)).

"you must be above your knowledge, not under it, or it will oppress you; and the more you have of it, the greater will be the load."

     John Henry Newman, The idea of a university defined and illustrated, Discourse VI.7 (ed. I. T. Ker (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1976), 125).

"Here is Russia and here is France, and we are in the middle; that is my map of Africa."

"'Your map of Africa is all very fine,' Bismarck famously told the traveller and writer Eugen Wolf, 'but my map of Africa lies in Europe.  Here is Russia and here is France, and we are in the middle; that is my map of Africa.'"

"'I h r e Karte von Afrika ist ja sehr schön, aber meine Karte von Afrika liegt in Europa.  Hier liegt Russland, and hier'—nach links deutend—'liegt Frankreich und wir sind in der Mitte; das ist m e i n e Karte von Afrika.'"

     As quoted by Niall Ferguson (but with the emphasis in the original reinserted) in "Balancing acts," Times literary supplement no. 5758 (August 9, 2013), 4 (3-4), a review of Brenda Simms' Europe:  the struggle for supremacy, 1453 to the present (London:  Allen Lane, 2013).  German (following Wikiquotes) from Eugen Wolf, Vom Fürsten Bismarck und seinem Haus:  Tagebuchblätter von Eugen Wolf, 2nd ed. (Berlin:  Egon Fleischel & Co., 1904), 16.  (I'm not seeing an earlier edition in WorldCat.)