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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Love is the beauty of the soul.

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.

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

He that is jealous is not in love.

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

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

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

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

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

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

God is best known in not knowing him.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.

Custom is second nature.

The purpose of all wars, is peace.

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.

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

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