Be acted upon rather than active. In this way, God will do through you alone what all men put together could not do without Him.

I thank God for having given the Company subjects who belong more to Him than to themselves, and who serve the neighbor at the risk of their lives! They are like unrefined gold, which becomes visible in fire and which would otherwise remain hidden under ordinary actions and sometimes under faults and failings.

The vine-stock bears fruit as long as it is attached to its stem; apart from that, no.

If you must be in a hurry, then let it be according to the old adage, and hasten slowly.

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.

Naturally, everyone loves his freedom, but we must beware of this as of a broad road that leads to perdition.

It is true that zeal is the soul of the virtues, but most certainly, Monsieur, it must be according to knowledge, as Saint Paul says; that means: according to knowledge of experience. And because young people ordinarily do not possess this experiential knowledge, their zeal goes to excess, especially in those who have a natural asperity.