A man searching for enlightenment is like a man sitting on an Ass in search of an Ass

We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of others and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us.

Faith is the door to the full inner life of the Church, a life which includes not only access to an authoritative teaching but above all to a deep personal experience which is at once unique and yet shared by the whole Body of Christ, in the Spirit of Christ.

Do not be one of those who, rather than risk failure, never attempts anything.

The only right way: to love and serve the man of the modern world, but not simply to succumb, with him, to all his illusions about the world.

In general, it can be said that no contemplative life is possible without ascetic self-discipline. One must learn to survive without the habit-forming luxuries which get such a hold on men today. I do not say that to be a contemplative one absolutely has to go without smoking or without alcohol, but certainly one must be able to use these things without being dominated by an uncontrolled need for them.

A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying [God]. It “consents,” so to speak, to [God's] creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree