Obedience is a penance of reason, and, on that account, a sacrifice more acceptable than all corporal penances and mortifications.

If you lose an opportunity you will be like one who lets the bird fly away; you will never get it back.

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved. The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.

Not to follow the advice of our confessor is pride and a want of faith.

However high be your endeavors, unless you renounce and subjugate your own will - unless you forget yourself and all that pertains to yourself - not one step will you advance on the road to perfection.

Yearning: It needs to hurt in order to be worthy of the word. Otherwise it is just wanting.