"Arm yourself like a man against the devil’s assaults. Curb your appetite and you will more easily curb every inclination of the flesh. Never be completely unoccupied, but read or write or pray or mediate or so something for the common good." -Thomas a' Kempis
"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.
"If we care nothing for any created things, but embrace the Creator alone, His Majesty will infuse the virtues into us in such a way that, provided we labor to the best of our abilities day by day, we shall not have to wage war much longer, for the Lord will take our defense in [...]
"You feel nothing? Confess in your heart your misery, your paralysis, your impotence, and even your sins. God will receive this confession of the humbled heart. It will take the place of the sweetest and most exalted affections. It is He Himself who sends that impotence in order to detach you from reflections to which, [...]
"When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace." Source: Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Dover Thrift Editions, 1940.
"Avarice is said to be the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10), and it is so because it causes hatred, theft, envy, separation, hostility, stormy blasts, remembrance of past wrongs, inhuman acts and even murder. A small fire can burn down an entire forest. But one virtue can help many to escape all the [...]
"What do kings and lords matter to me if I have no desire to possess their money, or to please them, if by so doing I should cause the least displeasure to God? And what do their honours mean to me if I have realized that the chief honour of a poor man consists in [...]
"With her commandments and her prohibitions, does not the Church turn to bitterness the joy of eros, of being loved, which urges us toward the other person and wants to be realized in union? In the encyclical, I have tried to show that the deepest promise of eros can bear fruit only when do not [...]
"Contentment, therefore, comes in part from faith – that is, from knowing the purpose of life and being assured that whatever the trials are, they come from the hand of a loving Father. Secondly, in order to have contentment one must also have a good conscious. If the inner self is unhappy because of moral [...]
"Set to work to destroy in yourself all that is not pleasing to Jesus Christ, to speak willingly to those who have caused you pain, to be pleased to see them, to love them sincerely, to practice the perfect renouncement of yourselves and you will see how your Communion will carry you forward with great [...]