Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.

If we were faultless, we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate. If we were to acknowledge honestly that we have not virtue enough to bear patiently with our neighbor's weaknesses, we should show our own imperfection, and this alarms our vanity.

To will everything that God wills, and to will it always, in all circumstances and without reservations: that is the kingdom of God which is entirely within.

Simplicity is that grace which frees the soul from all unnecessary reflections upon itself.

The smallest things become great when God requires them of us; they are small only in themselves; they are always great when they are done for God.

God felt, God tasted and enjoyed is indeed God, but God with those gifts which flatter the soul, God in darkness, in privation, in forsakenness, in sensibility, is so much God, that he is so to speak God bare and alone. Shall we fear this death, which is to produce in us the true divine life of grace?

The past but lives in written words: a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts, and kept the pale unbodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips.