If someone does me injury I must desire that this injury shall not degrade me. I must desire this out of love for him who inflicts it, in order that he may not really have done evil.

The Our Father contains all possible petitions; we cannot conceive of any prayer not already contained in it. It is to prayer what Christ is to humanity.

The notion of obligations comes before that of rights, which is subordinate and relative to the former. A right is not effectual by itself, but only in relation to the obligation to which it corresponds.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them.

Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.

We must prefer real hell to an imaginary paradise.