Daily quotes on developing virtue from Saints, Popes and others.
"He who is not submissive in his talk will certainly not be so in what he does. To be unfaithful in the small things is to be unfaithful in the great, and this is very hard to bring under control." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
"My child, you cannot always continue in the more fervent desire of virtue, or remain in the higher stage of contemplation, but because of humanity’s sin you must sometimes descend to lower things and bear the burden of this corruptible life, albeit unwillingly and wearily. As long as you wear a mortal body you will [...]
"Which are the foundations of sanctity? We may answer in a single word, Jesus Christ is the model, the grace, and the end. He is the necessary model, in Him we must view the virtues in order to comprehend them. A virtue is but the reproduction of some one of His actions, the imitation of [...]
"The proud man who trusts in himself may well undertake nothing, but the humble man is all the braver that he knows his own helplessness, and his courage waxes in proportion to his low opinion of himself, because all his trust is in God, Who delights to show forth His Power in our weakness, His [...]
"One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, CARITAS IN VERITATE (Charity in Truth), 6/29/2009
"However, in all these sufferings and struggles, I was not omitting Holy Communion. When it seemed to me that I should not communicate, I went, before Holy Communion, to the Directress and told her that I could not approach the Sacrament, because it seemed to me that I should not do so. But she would [...]
"Spiritual joy is a serenity of temper in the midst of the changes of life, such as a mountain has when a storm breaks over it." Source: Ven. Fulton Sheen, The Way to Happiness
"Jesus is the grace, as well as the model, of every virtue: 'Without Me,' He says, 'you can do nothing.' We must, then, be helped by Him. The work of virtue is only a co-operation with the divine action of Jesus Christ in us. He comes to aid us and to make us do what [...]
"A really humble man would rather that someone else called him worthless and good-for-nothing, than say so of himself; at all events, if such things are said, he does not contradict them, but acquiesces contentedly, for it is his own opinion." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., [...]
"Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, 'I will not hit you if you do not hit me'; there is no trace of such a transaction. There is a trace of both men having said, 'We must not hit each other in the holy place.' They gained their morality by guarding their [...]