You should not open your mouth except to express gratitude for benefits you have received, and never to mention your discontent.

[P]resent misfortune presupposes good luck in the future.

Let us reflect that we shall always do God's Will and He will do ours when we carry out that of our Superiors.

We must hold as an irrefutable maxim that the difficulties we have with our neighbor arise more from our immortified moods than from anything else.

. . . . [P]ersons who love very much, easily take offense at trifles. No doubt your excessive affection for me makes you a little diffident about mine. But there is no harm done; I hope you will soon be over this slight jealousy and be convinced that nothing can change the genuine affection Our Lord has given me for you

Even convicts, with whom I have spent some time, are not won over in any other way. Whenever I happened to speak sharply to them, I spoiled everything; on the contrary, when I praised them for their resignation and sympathized with them in their sufferings; when I told them they were fortunate to have their purgatory in this world, when I kissed their chains, showed compassion for their distress, and expressed sorrow for their misfortune, it was then that they listened to me, gave glory to God, and opened themselves to salvation.

[N]or should you move so fast! The works of God do not proceed in that way; they come about of themselves, and those He does not create soon perish.