Frederick William Faber Quotes

Many a friendship - long, loyal, and self-sacrificing - rested at first upon no thicker a foundation than a kind word.

The Blessed Sacrament is the magnet of souls. There is a mutual attraction between Jesus and the souls of men. Mary drew Him down from heaven. Our nature attracted Him rather than the nature of angels. Our misery caused Him to stoop to our lowness. Even our sins had a sort of attraction for the abundance of His mercy and the predilection of His grace. Our repentance wins Him to us. Our love makes earth a paradise to Him; and our souls lure Him as gold lures the miser, with irresistible fascination

We must have passed through life unobservantly, if we have never perceived that a man is very much himself what he thinks of others.

We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that might be said of Him.

We must remember that if all the manifestly good men were on one side and all the manifestly bad men on the other, there would be no danger of anyone, least of all the elect, being deceived by lying wonders. It is the good men, good once, we must hope good still, who are to do the work of Anti-Christ and so sadly to crucify the Lord afresh.... Bear in mind this feature of the last days, that this deceitfulness arises from good men being on the wrong side.

Eternity will not be long enough to learn all he is, or to praise him for all he has done, but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with him, and we desire nothing more.

The great fact is, that life is a service. The only question is, "Whom will we serve?

Kind words are the music of the world.

Love's secret is always to be doing things for God, and not to mind because they are such very little ones.

There's a wideness in God's mercy Like the wideness of the sea Oratory Hymns.

They always win who side with God.

Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory.

For children is there any happiness which is not also noise?

Poor human nature cannot do everything; and kindness is too often left uncultivated, because men do not sufficiently understand its value. Men may be charitable, yet not kind; merciful, yet not kind; self-denying, yet not kind. If they would add a little common kindness to their uncommon graces, they would convert ten where they now only abate the prejudice of one.

Kind words are the music of the world. They have a power which seems to be beyond natural causes, as if they were some angel's song which had lost its way and come to earth.

Nobody is kind to only one person at once, but to many persons in one.

We cannot resist the conviction that this world is for us only the porch of another and more magnificent temple of the Creator's majesty.

Happiness is a great power of holiness. Thus, kind words, by their power of producing happiness, have also a power of producing holiness, and so of winning men to God.

It has always seemed to me that a love of natural objects, and the depth, as well as exuberance and refinement of mind, produced by an intelligent delight in scenery, are elements of the first importance in the education of the young.

There is a great deal of self-will in the world, but very little genuine independence of character.

The buried talent is the sunken rock on which most lives strike and founder.

Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is the queen of all devotions. It is the central devotion of the Church. All others gather round it, and group themselves there as satellites; for others celebrate his mysteries; this is Himself. It is the universal devotion. No one can be without it, in order to be a Christian. How can a man be a Christian who does not worship the living Presence of Christ?

For right is right, since God is God.

Each hour comes with some little faggot of God's will fastened upon its back.

There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.

He draws us to Himself by grace, by example, by power, by lovingness, by beauty, by pardon, and above all by the Blessed Sacrament. Every one who has had anything to do with ministering to souls has seen the power which Jesus has. Talent is not needed. Eloquence is comparatively unattractive. Learning is often beside the mark. Controversy simply repels... All the attraction of the Church is in Jesus, and His chief attraction is the Blessed Sacrament

Remember that if the opportunities for great deeds should never come, the opportunities for good deeds are renewed day by day. The thing for us to long for is the goodness, not the glory.

Holiness is an unselfing of ourselves.

There is a grace of kind listening, as well as a grace of kind speaking.

God always fills in all hearts all the room which is left Him there.

For right is right, since God is God and right the day must win. To doubt would be disloyalty, to falter would be sin.

Deep theology is the best fuel of devotion; it readily catches fire, and once kindled it burns long.

Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.

Many there are who, while they bear the name of Christians, are totally unacquainted with the power of their divine religion. But for their crimes the Gospel is in no wise answerable. Christianity is with them a geographical, not a descriptive, appellation.

We strain hardest for things which are almost but not quite within our reach.

Kind words produce happiness. How often have we ourselves been made happy by kind words, in a manner and to an extent which we are unable to explain!

The music of the Gospel leads us home.

Exactness in little things is a wonderful source of cheerfulness.

Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning; and these three last have never converted any.

He (God) never comes to those who do not wait.