"I cannot understand how humility exists, or can exist, without love, or love without humility, and it is impossible for these two virtues to exist save where there is great detachment from all created things." -St. Teresa of Avila
"The truly humble person will have a genuine desire to be thought little of, and persecuted, and condemned unjustly, even in serious matters. For, if she desires to imitate the Lord, how can she do so better than this? And no bodily strength is necessary here, nor the aid of anyone save God." -St. Teresa [...]
"For, indeed, it takes great humility to find oneself unjustly condemned and be silent, and to do this is to imitate the Lord Who set us free from our sins. I beg you then, to study earnestly to do so, for it brings great gain whereas I can see no gain in our trying to [...]
"If you want to avenge yourself on the devil and free yourselves more quickly from temptation, ask the superior, as soon as a temptation comes to you, to give you some lowly office to do, or do some such thing, as best you can, on our own initiative, studying as you do it how to [...]
"I want it to be set down in writing, not to forget that we in this house, and for that matter anyone who would be perfect, must flee a thousand leagues from such phrases as: 'I had right on my side'; 'They had no right to do this to me'; 'The person who treated me [...]
"If you want to avenge yourself on the devil and free yourselves more quickly from temptation, ask the superior, as soon as a temptation comes to you, to give you some lowly office to do, or do some such thing, as best you can, on our own initiative, studying as you do it how to [...]
"I want it to be set down in writing, not to forget that we in this house, and for that matter anyone who would be perfect, must flee a thousand leagues from such phrases as: 'I had right on my side'; 'They had no right to do this to me'; 'The person who treated me [...]
"For this body of ours has one fault: the more you indulge it, the more things it discovers to be essential to it." Source: Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Dover Thrift Editions, 2012.
"Resolve, sisters, that it is to die for Christ, and not to practice self-indulgence for Christ, that you have come here." Source: Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Dover Thrift Editions, 2012.
"It is here that true humility can enter, for this virtue and that of detachment from self, I think, always go together. They are two sisters, who are inseparable." Source: Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Dover Thrift Editions, 2012.