Experience has shown us that virtue puts down only shallow roots in those who are there for just a short time

Providence must call us and we must follow it, if we are to go forward confidently.

I have never made any distinction between those who have taken vows and those who have not; some should not be overburdened in order to spare others.

[I]n order to raise a soul to the highest perfection, He allows it to pass through dryness, brambles, and combats, causing it thereby to honor the times of weariness in the life of His Son, Our Lord, who suffered various kinds of anguish and abandonment.

Scorn both these evil suggestions and the wickedness of their author, who is the devil. Be very cheerful and humble yourself as much as you can. Ordinarily, God allows these things to happen to free us from some hidden pride and to engender in us holy humility.

[M]ay you be more advanced in the school of solid virtue, which is practiced in an excellent way in the midst of suffering, and which keeps good servants of God in fear when they have nothing to suffer!

It is a good sign when He burdens us with [crosses] and we carry them well, but woe to the person who runs away from them, for he will find such heavy ones that they will overwhelm him.