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Quotes by Saint
"It's not in the book or in the writer that readers discern the truth of what they read; they see it in themselves, if the light of truth has penetrated their minds."
"Pray as though everything depends on God. And work as if everything depends on you."
"Behold, now, how foolish it is, in so great an abundance of the truest opinions which can be extracted from these words, rashly to affirm which of them Moses particularly meant; and with pernicious contentions to offend charity itself, on account of which he hath spoken all the things whose words we endeavour to explain!"
"If we are wayfarers who want to return home, then we must see the world as a means of transportation (terestibus vel marinis vehiculis) and always remember to distinguish the means and ends."
"Le bonheur, c'est continuer à désirer ce que l'on a déjà."
"Let the Lord your God be your hope " seek for nothing else from him, but let him himself be your hope. There are people who hope from him riches or perishable and transitory honours, in short they hope to get from God things which are not God himself."
"Every good man resists others in those points in which he resists himself."
"Is any man skillful enough to have fashioned himself?"
"I fell away from you, my God, and I went astray, too far astray from you, the support of my youth, and I became to myself a land of want."
"For I am aware what ability is requisite to persuade the proud how great is the virtue of humility, which raises us, not by a quite human arrogance, but by a divine grace, above all earthly dignities that totter on this shifting scene."
"There is no health in those who are displeased by an element in Your creation, just as there was none in me when I was displeased by many things You had made. Because my soul didn't dare to say that my God displeased me, it refused to attribute to You whatever was displeasing."
"My soul is like a house, small for you to enter, but I pray you to enlarge it. It is in ruins, but I ask you to remake it. It contains much that you will not be pleased to see: this I know and do not hide. But who is to rid it of these things? There is no one but you."
"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand."
"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."
"When consent takes the form of seeking to possess the things we wish, this is called desire. When consent takes the form of enjoying the things we wish, this is called joy."
"The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works."
"The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read one page."
"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas,at the long course of the rivers,at the vast compass of the ocean,at the circular motion of the stars,and yet they pass by themselves without wondering."
"If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God."
"Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good."
"Every day my conscience makes confession relying on the hope of Your mercy as more to be trusted than its own innocence."
"What should you, O man, do, you who seek your own glory whenever you do anything good, while when you do something bad, you figure out ways to blame God."
"The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance. The mind commands the hand to move, and it so easy that one hardly distinguishes the order from its execution. Yet mind is mind and hand is body. The mind orders the mind to will. The recipient of the order is itself, yet it does not perform it."
"For it is one thing to see the Land of Peace from a wooded ridge, and yet another to walk the road that leads to it."
"Do not feel surprise at being schooled amid toil: you are being schooled for a wondrous destiny."
"He that becomes protector of sin shall surely become its prisoner."
"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell."
"The end of life puts the longest life on a par with the shortest."
"How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity."
"Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous; repair Thou it. It has that within which must offend Thine eyes; I confess and know it. But who shall cleanse it? or to whom should I cry, save Thee? Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults, and spare Thy servant from the power of the enemy. I believe, and therefore do I speak."
"It is a higher glory... to stay war itself with a word, than to slay men with the sword, and to procure or maintain peace by peace, not by war."
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