Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.
Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections.
Have Jesus always for your patron, His Cross for a mast on which you must spread your resolutions as a sail. Your anchor shall be a profound confidence in Him, and you shall sail prosperously.
It is a great imperfection to complain unceasingly of little things.
Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.
A heart-memory is better than a mere head-memory. Better to carry away a little of the love of Christ in our souls, than if we were able to repeat every word of every sermon we ever heard.
It is better to remain silent than to speak the truth ill-humoredly, and spoil an excellent dish by covering it with bad sauce.
Faith is like a bright ray of sun light. It enables us to see God in all things as well as all things in God.
Doing little things with a strong desire to please God makes them really great.
There is nothing small in the service of God.
Let us think only of spending the present day well. Then when tomorrow shall have come, it will be called today, and then we will think about it.
It is not those who commit the least faults who are the most holy, but those who have the greatest courage, the greatest generosity, the greatest love, who make the boldest efforts to overcome themselves, and are not immediately apprehensive about tripping.
It is to those who have the most need of us that we ought to show our love more especially.
Better make penitents by gentleness than hypocrites by severity.
One single act done with aridity of spirit is worth more than many done with feelings of devotion.
Go in all simplicity; do not be anxious to win a quiet mind, and it will be all the quieter. Do not examine so closely into the progress of your soul. Do not crave too much to be perfect, but let your spiritual life beformed by your duties, and by the actions which are called forth by circumstances.
I have made a pact with my tongue, not to speak when my heart is disturbed.
If you would fall into any extreme, let it be on the side of gentleness. The human mind is so constructed that it resists rigor, and yields to softness.
Those who love to be feared fear to be loved.
Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.