Teresa of Avila Quotes

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

Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.

Mental prayer is nothing else but being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him.

Christ does not force our will, He only takes what we give Him. But He does not give Himself entirely until He sees that we yield ourselves entirely to Him.

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.

However softly we speak, God is near enough to hear us.

Her heart is full of joy with love, for in the Lord her mind is stilled. She has renounced every selfish attachment and draws abiding joy and strength from the One within. She lives not for herself, but lives to serve the Lord of Love in all, and swims across the sea of life breasting its rough waves joyfully.

Let us consider what the glorious Virgin endured, and what the holy apostles suffered, and we shall find that they who were nearest to Jesus Christ were the most afflicted.

I would never want any prayer that would not make the virtues grow within me.

Teach by works more than words.

Settle yourself in solitude, and you will come upon God in yourself.

Our soul can find in the Blessed Sacrament all the joys and consolations it desires.

Seldom or never is a poor man honored by the world; however worthy of honor he may be, he is apt rather to be despised by it.

God is even kinder than you think.

Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don't remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don't understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.

Be gentle and kind with every one, and severe with yourself.

There was the torture of sermons, and that not a slight one, for I was very fond of them.

They deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures, and in the enjoyment of Him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and subjection of our will - with our thoughts, words and actions - to the will of God.

The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility.

Oh, my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value.

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.

My father was a man of great charity towards the poor, and compassion for the sick, and also for servants; so much so, that he never could be persuaded to keep slaves, for he pitied them so much: and a slave belonging to one of his brothers being once in his house, was treated by him with as much tenderness as his own children.

Ah, how true it is that we love ourselves too much and proceed with too much human prudence, that we may not lose an atom of our consideration! Oh, what a great mistake that is! The Saints did not act thus.

Learn to self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it. As soon you apply yourself to orison, you will at once feel your senses gather themselves together: they seem like bees which return to the hive and there shut themselves up to work at the making of honey. At the first call of the will, they come back more and more quickly. At last, after countless exercises, of this kind, God disposes them to a state of utter rest and of perfect contemplation.

Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction.

We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.

It is the nature of love to work in a thousand different ways.

Love draws forth love.

I say the same of humility and of all the virtues; the wiles of the devil are terrible, he will run a thousand times round hell if by so doing he can make us believe that we have a single virtue which we have not. And he is right, for such ideas are very harmful, and such imaginary virtues, when they come from this source, are never unaccompanied by vainglory; just as those which God gives are free both from this and from pride.

To argue over who is the more noble is nothing more than to dispute whether dirt is better for making bricks or for making mortar.

Let nothing Disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, Though all things pass, God does not change. Patience wins all things. But he lacks nothing who possesses God; For God alone suffices.

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

Let there be no disappointment when obedience keeps you busy in outward tasks. If it sends you to the kitchen, remember that the Lord walks among the pots and pans.

Do not think you have gained a virtue unless you have first been tried by its opposite.

You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.

A slight failing in one virtue is enough to put all the others to sleep.

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.

The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.

I have always had this failing - that I cannot explain myself, as I have said, except at the cost of many words.

All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.

While the soul is in mortal sin, nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward, since they do not proceed from God as their first principle, and by Him alone is our virtue real virtue.

It will be as well, I think, to explain these locutions of God, and to describe what the soul feels when it receives them.

I am really much more afraid of those people who have so great a fear of the devil, than I am of the devil himself.

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.

If we practice love of neighbor with great perfection, we will have done everything.

One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer.

Contemplative prayer [oración mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.

How is it that there are not many who are led by sermons to forsake open sin? Do you know what I think? That is because preachers have too much worldly wisdom.