The ivy cannot grow alone: it must twine round some support or other; if not the goodly oak, then the ragged thorn — round any dead stick whatever, rather than have no stay or support at all. It is even so with the heart and affections of man; if they do not twine around God, they must twine around some meaner thing.

Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886) English archbishop, philologist, poet

(Attributed)