Who will excuse us before God for the loss of such a great number of people, who could be saved by the slight assistance we could give them?

In a word, we are like the servants of the centurion in the Gospel with regard to the bishops, insofar as when they say to us: go, we are obliged to go; if they say: come, we are obliged to come; do that, and we are obliged to do it.

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.

[Do not] overburden yourself with rules of devotion, but persist in doing well those you have, your daily actions, your work; in a word, let everything revolve around doing well what you are doing.

There is nothing good that does not meet with opposition, and it should not be valued any less because it encounters objections.

Naturally, everyone is disheartened by sharp reprimands, and by the most amiable corrections as well, if they are frequent, immoderate, or given inappropriately.

If, in order to succeed in an enterprise, I were obliged to choose between fifty deer commanded by a lion, and fifty lions commanded by a deer, I should consider myself more certain of success with the first group than with the second.