Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new!
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.
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.
Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.
O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.
The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.
Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.
I asked the whole frame of the world about my God; and he answered, I am not He, but He made me.
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.
No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.
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.
Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.
Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.
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.
He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
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.
I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.
I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.
Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence.
If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times.
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.
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.
God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
Love is the beauty of the soul.
Love, and do what you like.
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
The greatest evil is physical pain.
This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
Punishment is justice for the unjust.
Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.
To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.
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.
Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?
Temperance is love surrendering itself wholly to Him who is its object; courage is love bearing all things gladly for the sake of Him who is its object; justice is love serving only Him who is its object, and therefore rightly ruling; prudence is love making wise distinction between what hinders and what helps itself.
A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.
Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
The people who remained victorious were less like conquerors than conquered.