There is more joy in heaven over a converted sinner than over a righteous person standing firm. A leader in battle has more love for a soldier who returns after fleeing, and who valiantly pursues the enemy, than for one who never turned back, but who never acted valiantly either. A farmer has greater love for land which bears fruitfully, after he has cleared it of thorns, than for land which never had thorns but which never yielded a fruitful harvest.

He who is required by the necessity of his position to speak the highest things is compelled by the same necessity to exemplify the highest things.

Whatsoever one would understand what he hears must hasten to put into practice what he has heard.

You don't climb a mountain in leaps and bounds, but by taking it slowly.

Ignorance is a dangerous and spiritual poison, which all men ought warily to shun.

I despise the proper constructions and cases, because I think it very unfitting that the words of the celestial oracle should be restricted by the rules of Donatus [a well-known grammarian].

The more the wicked abound, so much the more must we suffer with them in patience; for on the threshing floor few are the grains carried into the barns, but high are the piles of chaff burned with fire.