For where there is true love, a man is neither out of measure lifted up by prosperity, nor cast down by mishap; whether you give or take away from him, so long as he keeps his beloved, he has a spring of inward peace. Thus, even though thy outward man grieve, or weep downright, that may well be borne, if only thy inner man remain at peace, perfectly content with the will of God.

Never believe that true prayer consists in mere babbling, reciting so many psalms and vigils, saying your beads while you allow your thoughts to roam.

Everything depends on this: a fathomless sinking into a fathomless nothingness.

As a good wine must be kept in a good cask, so a wholesome body is the proper foundation for a well-appointed inner ground.

Let God and all his creation teach you what your sins are.

God is infinite and without end, but the soul's desire is an abyss which cannot be filled except by a Good which is infinite; and the more ardently the soul longeth after God, the more she wills to long after him; for God is a Good without drawback, and a well of living water without bottom, and the soul is made in the image of God, and therefore it is created to know and love God.

If we really want to achieve true prayer, we must turn our backs upon everything temporal, everything external, everything that is not divine.