We do not rest satisfied with the present.... So imprudent we are that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not thinkof the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us.

Instead of complaining that God had hidden himself, you will give Him thanks for having revealed so much of Himself.

Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble.

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.

Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves as united to him.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

Men are so completely fools by necessity that he is but a fool in a higher strain of folly who does not confess his foolishness.