The same thing which is now called Christian religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call 'Christian' the true religion which existed before.
We cannot pass our guardian angel's bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.
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.
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.
A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.
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.
Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.
Bad company is like a nail driven into a post, which, after the first and second blow, may be drawn out with little difficulty; but being once driven up to the head, the pincers cannot take hold to draw it out, but which can only be done by the destruction of the wood.
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.
This world's a bubble.
The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust; it is carried along to dwell in the blood.
Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.
Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.
Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.
O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.
Patience is the companion of wisdom.