Pope John XXIII Quotes

Relations between States, as between individuals, must be regulated not by armed force, but in accordance with...truth, justice and vigorous and sincere co-operation.

We supplicate all rulers not to remain deaf to the cry of mankind. Let them do everything in their power to save peace. By so doing they will spare the world the horrors of a war that would have disastrous consequences, such as nobody can foresee.

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.

I have looked into your eyes with my eyes. I have put my heart near your heart.

Every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity.

Anybody can be Pope; the proof of this is that I have become one.

The solidarity which binds all men together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.

The council now beginning rises in the Church like the daybreak, a forerunner of most splendid light.

Every time I hear anyone speak of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or of the Blessed Sacrament I feel an indescribable joy. It is as if a wave of precious memories, sweet affections and joyful hopes swept over my poor person, making me tremble with happiness and filling my soul with tenderness.

Do not walk through time without leaving worthy evidence of your passage.

O Jesus, come back into our society, our family life, our souls and reign there as our peaceful Sovereign. Enlighten with the splendor of faith and the charity of Your tender heart the souls of those who work for the good of the people, for Your poor. Impart to them Your own spirit, a spirit of discipline, order and gentleness, preserving the flame of enthusiasm ever alight in their hearts... May that day come very soon, when we shall see You restored to the center of civic life, borne on the shoulders of Your joyful people.

Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. We must always remember this. The actual words matter less.

I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in.

Before everything else, fidelity to the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Jesus did not found several churches, but one single Church.

Whoever has a heart full of love always has something to give.

To keep me from sin and straying from Him, God has used devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. My life vows destined to be spent in the light irradiating from the tabernacle, and it is to the Heart of Jesus that I dare go for the solution of all my problems

What unites us, is much greater than what divides us.

The family is the first essential cell of human society.

Here I am at the end of the road and at the top of the heap.

It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.

The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world.

Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.

The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular.

I live by the mercy of Jesus, to whom I owe everything and from whom I expect everything.

Today the universal common good poses problems of world-wide dimensions, which cannot be adequately tackled or solved except by the efforts of public authorities endowed with a wideness of powers, structure and means of the same proportions; that is... on a world-wide basis.

Listen to everything, forget much, correct little.

Born poor, but of honored and humble people, I am particularly proud to die poor.

Mankind is a great, an immense family... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.

If God created shadows it was to better emphasise the light.

The social progress, order, security and peace of each country are necessarily connected with the social progress, order, security and peace of all other countries.

There is a common belief that under modern conditions peace cannot be assured except on the basis of an equal balance of armaments...[but] true and lasting peace among nations cannot consist in the possession of an equal supply of armaments but only in mutual trust.

Never Hesitate to hold out your hand; never hesitate to accept the outstretched hand of another.

The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection.

The deposit of the faith is one thing... the way it is expressed is another.

Consult not your fears, but your hopes and your dreams.

I am able to follow my own death step by step. Now I move softly towards the end.

Justice comes before charity.

Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways, women, gambling, and farming. My family chose the slowest one.

The thought of the presence of God and the spirit of worship will in all my actions have as their immediate object Jesus, God and man, really present in the most holy Eucharist. The spirit of sacrifice, of humiliation, of scorn for self in the eyes of men, will be illuminated, supported and strengthened by the constant thought of Jesus, humiliated and despised in the Blessed Sacrament

Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said.

O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I would like to be filled with love for You; keep me closely united with You, may my heart be near to Yours. I want to be to You like the apostle John. O Mary of the Rosary, keep me recollected when I say these prayers of yours; bind me forever, with your rosary, to Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed be Jesus, my love.

When I eat alone I feel like a seminarian being punished. I tried it for one week and I was not comfortable. Then I searched through Sacred Scripture for something saying I had to eat alone. I found nothing, so I gave it up and it's much better now.

I am made to tremble and I fear!

Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfullfilled potential.

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.

The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.

An angel of Paradise, no less, is always beside me, wrapped in everlasting ecstasy on his Lord. So I am ever under the gaze of an angel who protects and prays for me.

The true and solid peace of nations consists not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone.