If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly.

By humility, out of an enemy He has made a friend, which is more than to have created a new earth.

Know that when you seek anything of your own, you will never find God, because you do not seek God purely. You are seeking something along with God, and you are acting just as if you were to make a candle out of God in order to look for something with it. Once one finds the things one is looking for, one throws the candle away. This is what you are doing.

I will be silent and will hear what God will say in me...If God wishes to speak to me, let him enter. I will not go out.

Your own efforts "did not bring it to pass," only God-but rejoice if God found a use for your efforts in His work.

Only he to whom God is present in everything and who employs his reason in the highest degree and has enjoyment in it knows anything of true peace and has a real kingdom of heaven.

Everything is meant to be lost, that the soul may stand in unhampered nothingness