By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.

If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe.

Punishment is justice for the unjust.

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.

I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.

God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

What I needed most was to love and to be loved, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me; and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers or jealousy, by suspicions and fear, by burst of anger and quarrels.

Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.

Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.

It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr.

Hear the other side.

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.

In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don’t accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend.

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times.

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man’s wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.

We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.

Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart.

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.

Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.

Love is the beauty of the soul.

By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.

Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.

Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

Love, and do what you like.

To seek the highest good is to live well.

There is no possible source of evil except good.

We cannot pass our guardian angel’s bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.

Don’t you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?

The greatest evil is physical pain.

The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

He that is jealous is not in love.

My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed… And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is.

The purpose of all wars, is peace.

We make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot.