Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.
— Saint Augustine
No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.
Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.
Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.
This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.
O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.
We cannot pass our guardian angel's bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.
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.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
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.
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.
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.
Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.
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.
The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.
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.
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?
Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
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.
By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.
O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.
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.
Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.
Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.
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.
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.
God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.
God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
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.
