His justice is the love that gives to each one of His creatures the gifts that His mercy has previously decreed. And His mercy is His love, doing justice to its own exigencies, and renewing the gift which we had failed to accept.

A gentle sense of humor will be alert to detect anything that savors of a pious 'act' on the part of the penitent.

Happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found.

When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry. You take your time, you do your work well.

Ultimately faith is the only key to the universe. The final meaning of human existence, and the answers to the questions on which all our happiness depends cannot be found in any other way.

And it is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or comfort our own minds, when we seem to be useless and worthy of all contempt, when we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed and devoured, it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close to us for us to identify is stripped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find liberty. It is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure.

If you want to have a spiritual life you must unify your life. A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all.