How can they be delivered from the life of self, who are not willing to abandon all their possessions? How can they believe themselves despoiled of all, who possess the greatest treasure under heaven? Do not oblige me to name it, but judge, if you are enlightened; there is one of them which is less than the other, which is lost before it, but which those who must lose everything have the greatest trouble in parting with.

The more wants we have, the further we are from God, and the nearer we approach him, the better can we dispense with everything that is not Himself.

It is the fire of suffering that brings forth the gold of godliness.

Surrender yourselves then to be led and disposed of just as God pleases, with respect both to your outward and inward state.

It is a great truth, wonderful as it is undeniable, that all our happiness - temporal, spiritual, and eternal - consists in one thing; namely, in resigning ourselves to God, and in leaving ourselves with Him, to do with us and in us just as He pleases.

God's designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise.

Ah, if you knew what peace there is in an accepted sorrow!