It is a great folly to be willing to violate the friendship of God, rather than the law of human friendship.

This body of ours has one fault: the more you indulge it, the more things it discovers to be essential to it. It is extraordinary how it likes being indulged.

In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree.

To want to become angels while we are still on earth ... is ridiculous.

The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave - caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition - cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner.

Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God. God alone is sufficient.

Lord, how you afflict your lovers! But everything is small in comparison to what you give them afterwards.