The ministry is a weight from which even an angel might shrink

There is something in humility which, strangely enough, exalts the heart, and something in pride which debases it.

I was in misery, and misery is the state of every soul overcome by friendship with mortal things and lacerated when they are lost. Then the soul becomes aware of the misery which is its actual condition even before it loses them.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

I learned most, not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me.

It is indeed better (as no one ever could deny) that men should be led to worship God by teaching, than that they should be driven to it by fear of punishment or pain; but it does not follow that because the former course produces the better men, therefore those who do not yield to it should be neglected. For many have found advantage (as we have proved, and are daily proving by actual experiment), in being first compelled by fear or pain, so that they might afterwards be influenced by teaching, or might follow out in act what they had already learned in word.

So give to the poor; I'm begging you, I'm warning you, I'm commanding you, I'm ordering you.