Renew every day your conversation with God: Do this even in preference to eating. Think more often of God than you breathe.

I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived - and dying I will tend to later.

Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast.

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Opportunity beckons more surely when misfortune comes upon a person than it ever does when that person is riding the crest of a wave of success. It sharpens a person's wits, if that person will let it, enabling him or her to see more clearly and evaluate situations with a more knowledgeable judgment.

Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world.

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.