If you bear the cross unwillingly, you make it a burden, and load yourself more heavily; but you must bear it.
All His glory and beauty come from within, and there He delights to dwell, His visits there are frequent, His conversation sweet, His comforts refreshing; and His peace passing all understanding.
Do not try to find a place free from temptations and troubles. Rather, seek a peace that endures even when you are beset by various temptations and tried by much adversity.
Now is the time to be doing, now is the time to be stirring, now is the time to amend myself.
If you can win complete mastery over self, you will easily master all else. To triumph over self is the perfect victory.
It is better to be affected with a true penitent sorrow for sin than to be able to resolve the most difficult cases about it.
By two wings a man is lifted up from things earthly: by simplicity and purity.
The only safe ruler is he who has learned to obey willingly.
May not be your peace in the mouth of the men; since no matter if they thing good or bad about you, you should not be a different man because of that.
A lover of Jesus and of the truth can lift himself above himself in spirit.
O how quickly passes away the glory of the earth.
And when he is out of sight, quickly also he is out of mind.
Praise adds nothing to your holiness, nor does blame take anything from it. You are what you are, and you cannot be said to be better than you are in God’s sight.
My child, it will be better for you if you accept my decisions without complaint. Do not ask me to defend my actions or to explain why one person is favored and another seems slighted. The answers to these questions go far beyond your comprehension.
Study, therefore, to withdraw the love of your soul from all things that are visible, and turn it to things that are invisible.
Would to God that we might spend a single day really well!
Ah, Lord God, thou holy lover of my soul, when thou comest into my heart, all that is within me shall rejoice.
Study to do another’s will rather than thine own. Choose ever to have less rather than more. Seek ever the lower place and to be subject to all; ever wish and pray that the will of God may be perfectly done in thee and in all. Behold such a man enters the bounds of peace and calm.
Without labor there is no rest, nor without fighting can the victory be won.
The reflections on a day well spent furnish us with joys more pleasing than ten thousand triumphs.