I do not admire a virtue like valour when it is pushed to excess, if I do not see at the same time the excess of the opposite virtue, as one does in Epaminondas, who displayed extreme valour and extreme benevolence. For otherwise it is not an ascent, but a fall. We do not display our greatness by placing ourselves at one extremity, but rather by being at both at the same time, and filling up the whole of the space between them.

Continuous eloquence is tedious.

The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God.

There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.

For nature is an image of Grace, and visible miracles are images of the invisible.

The best defense against logic is ignorance.

Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first.