Hope, O my soul, hope. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience turns a very short time into a long one.
You ought to make every effort to free yourselves even from venial sin, and to do what is most perfect.
Lord, how you afflict your lovers! But everything is small in comparison to what you give them afterwards.
It should be observed that perfect love of God consists not in those delights, tears and sentiments of devotion that we generally seek, but in a strong determination and keen desire to please God in all things, and to promote His glory.
There was the torture of sermons, and that not a slight one, for I was very fond of them.
Never exaggerate, but express your feelings with moderation.
God prefers your health, and your obedience, to your penance.
Holy church-that mother who is also a queen because she is a king’s bride.
The best thing must be to flee from all to the All.
It is only mercenaries who expect to be paid by the day.
The saints rejoiced at injuries and persecutions, because in forgiving them they had something to present to God when they prayed to Him.
However much we do to avoid them, we shall never lack crosses in this life if we are in the ranks of the Crucified.
May nothing wind you up, nothing affright you; everything comes and goes. God, still, just there; through patience all will be achieved. If you have God, you lack nothing: God alone will do.
What a miserable life is this! There is no happiness that is secure and nothing that does not change.
How poor is the wisdom of men, and how uncertain their forecast!
Souls without prayer are like bodies, palsied and lame, having hands and feet they cannot use.
I fully realize that this gratitude of mine is not in the least a sign of perfection: it must be my nature – I could be suborned with a sardine...
I have always had this failing – that I cannot explain myself, as I have said, except at the cost of many words.
All the trials we endure cannot be compared to these interior battles.
The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.