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.

Punishment is justice for the unjust.

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

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

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

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.

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 purpose of all wars, is peace.

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.

Love is the beauty of the soul.

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

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

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.

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

There is no possible source of evil except good.

Hear the other side.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

The greatest evil is physical pain.

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

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.

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.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

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

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

Love, and do what you like.

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

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

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

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.