If the crowns of all the kingdoms of the empire were laid down at my feet in exchange for my books and my love of reading I would spurn them all.

Discouragement is simply the despair of wounded self-love.

Despondency is not a state of humility; on the contrary, it is the vexation and despair of a cowardly pride--nothing is worse; whether we stumble or whether we fall, we must only think of rising again and going on in our course.

The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become toward the defects of other people.

Let gratitude for the past inspire us with trust for the future.

It is when God appears to have abandoned us that we must abandon ourselves most wholly to God.

So long as we are full of self we are shocked at the faults of others. Let us think often of our own sin, and we shall be lenient to the sins of others.