Teresa of Avila Quotes

I only wish I could write with both hands, so as not to forget one thing while I am saying another.

Prayer is a friendly conversation with the One we know loves us.

His Majesty [the Lord] . . . rewards great services with trials, and there can be no better reward, for out of trials springs love for God.

Those who in fact risk all for God will find that they have both lost all and gained all.

There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.

Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.

Whenever conscience commands anything, there is only one thing to fear, and that is fear.

The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase.

May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds.

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

What a miserable life is this! There is no happiness that is secure and nothing that does not change.

If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.

How is it, Lord, that we are cowards in everything save in opposing thee?

The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.

Be happy when you are blamed and accused wrongly, for then you have the chance to see all the bitter, hostile or self-pitying responses that your sinful soul wants to spew out - as if these puny things could in any way defend you! Watch and see if any of these poisons come out of you when your spirit is pricked by an accusation. Only then can you see yourself as you are, and confess thy sin that is within you and forsake yourself again into the Lord's care.

All things pass... Patience attains all it strives for.

Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer-however much the lips may move.

Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices.

It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found - not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater.

Whenever we think of Christ, we should recall the love that led Him to bestow on us so many graces and favors, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of His love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love Him.

In the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament we ought to be like the Blessed in heaven before the Divine Essence

Strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart.

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

His Majesty knows best what is suitable for us. There's no need for us to be advising Him about what He should give us, for He can rightly tell us that we don't know what we're asking for (cf. Mt. 20:22). The whole aim of any person who is beginning prayer ? and don't forget this, because it's very important ? should be that he work and prepare himself with determination and every possible effort to bring his will into conformity with God's will.

What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we will or no, must ever bear us company?

The life of prayer is just love to God, and the custom of being ever with Him.

In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give Him thanks.

If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few!

Our greatest gain is to lose the wealth that is of such brief duration and, by comparison with eternal things, of such little worth; yet we get upset about it and our gain turns to loss.

With all this wide and beautiful creation before me, the restless soul longs to enjoy its liberty and rest beyond its bound.

I have often thought with wonder of the great goodness of God; and my soul has rejoiced in the contemplation of His great magnificence and mercy. May He be blessed for ever! For I see clearly that He has not omitted to reward me, even in this life, for every one of my good desires.

It constantly happens that the Lord permits a soul to fall so that it may grow humbler.

We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty.

The true penance comes when God takes away the soul's health and strength for doing penance. Even though I have mentioned elsewhere the great pain this lack causes, the pain is much more intense here. All these things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.

I am quite sure that if we could but once approach the Most Holy Sacrament with great faith and love, it would suffice to make us rich. How much more so if we approach it often!

The soul of the just man is but a paradise, in which, God tells us, He takes His delight. What do you imagine, must that dwelling be in which a King so mighty, so wise, and so pure, containing in Himself all good, can delight to rest? Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He told us, He created us in his own image and likeness.

It is love alone that gives worth to all things.

[On her father:] ... in losing him I lost my greatest blessing and comfort, for he was always that to me.

God prefers your health, and your obedience, to your penance.

Let us live in such a way as not to be afraid to die.

When I took the habit, the Lord immediately showed me how He favours those who do violence to themselves in order to serve Him. No one saw what I endured... At the moment of my entrance into this new state I felt a joy so great that it has never failed me even to this day; and God converted the dryness of my soul into a very great tenderness.

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

[Last words:] My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another.

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

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

Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He has told us, He created us in His own image and likeness.

That is how His Majesty [the Lord] rewards our good works---I mean, by predisposing us to perform better ones.

Let him never cease from prayer, who has once begun to pray, even though his life is ever so bad. For prayer is the only way to amend one's life and without prayer it will never be mended. Let him not be tempted of the devil, as I was, to give up prayer on account of one's unworthiness. Let such a one rather believe that if he will only repent and pray, our Lord will still hear and answer.