A soul which gives itself to prayer, either much or little, should on no account be kept within narrow bounds.

The saints rejoiced at injuries and persecutions, because in forgiving them they had something to present to God when they prayed to Him.

When the soul, through its own fault... becomes rooted in a pool of pitch-black, evil smelling water, it produces nothing but misery and filth.

Humility must always be doing its work like a bee making honey in the hive: without humility all will be lost.

A beginner must look on himself as one setting out to make a garden for his Lord's pleasure, on most unfruitful soil which abounds in weeds. His Majesty roots up the weeds and will put in good plants instead. Let us reckon that this is already done when the soul decides to practice prayer and has begun to do so.

I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.

God, deliver me from sullen saints.