A disciple once complained, "You tell us stories, but you never reveal their meaning to us." The master replied, "How would you like it if someone offered you fruit and then chewed it up for you before giving it to you?" If your heart is straight with God, then every creature will be to you a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine.

Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.

You will never be an inwardly religious and devout man unless you pass over in silence the shortcomings of your fellow men, and diligently examine your own weaknesses.

If thou may not continually gather thyself together, do it sometime at least once a day, morning or evening.

Occasions do not make a man either strong or weak but they show what he is.

Love feels no burden, regards not labors, strives toward more than it attains, argues not of impossibility, since it believes that it may and can do all things.

A sure way of retaining the grace of heaven is to disregard outward appearances, and diligently to cultivate such things as foster amendment of life and fervour of soul, rather than to cultivate those qualities that seem most popular.