Our Lord reserved to Himself certain things which He would do in due time in a manner outside the course and order of nature, so that they would wonder and be astonished at seeing not great but unusual things, who are unmoved by things daily seen. For the government of the world is a greater miracle than feeding five thousand men from five loaves; yet at the former no one wonders, the latter astonishes all men: not as a greater wonder, but as a rarer.

Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor.

Often the contempt of vainglory becomes a source of even more vainglory, for it is not being scorned when the contempt is something one is proud of.

If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love.

God's faithful servant has no desire for people to say or to give to him, or what he likes to hear or see, for his first and greatest aim is to hear what is most pleasing to God.

The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?

Purity of soul cannot be lost without consent.