May God be pleased to make it known to you, and fill you increasingly with His Spirit, so that through you it may be poured into the souls you guide, and your own soul may be more greatly sanctified!

If we divested ourselves, once and for all, of all self-will, we would then be in a position of being sure of doing the Will of God, in which the angels find all their delight and men all their happiness.

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.

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.

Peace is never so complete that we may not have something to suffer. . . . Since it is impossible to please all of [those you serve], they offer you the occasion for practices which increase your merit in the measure that you make them meritorious by your patience.

Is it not better to fail after asking advice than to risk acting on our own?

You know, Monsieur, that, although the contemplative life is more perfect than the active life, it is not, however, more so than one which embraces at the same time contemplation and action, as does yours, by God's grace.