"So soon as you feel yourself anywise tempted, do as your little children when they see a wolf or a bear in the mountains. Forthwith they run to the protection of their father or mother, or at least cry out for help. Do you fly in like manner to God, claiming His compassion and succor [...]
"Thus it sometimes happens that temptation in itself is sin to us, because we have ourselves brought it upon us. For instance, if I know that gaming leads me to passion and blasphemy, and that all play is temptation to me, I sin each and every time that I play, and I am responsible for [...]
"Indeed, it has often happened that those who had been steadfast under violent assaults, failing to correspond faithfully to Divine Grace, have yielded under the pressure of very trifling temptations." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"However long the temptation may persist, it cannot harm us so long as it is unwelcome to us." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"Even so, my child, your changed life may be attended with some inward discomfort, and you may feel some reaction of discouragement and weariness after you have taken a final farewell of the world and its follies. Should it be so, I pray you take it patiently, for it will not last – it is [...]
"We have all seen men, and women, too, pass the whole night, even several in succession, playing at chess or cards; and what can be a more dismal, unwholesome thing than that? But the world has not a word to say against it, and their friends are nowise troubled. But give up an hour to [...]
"Vows render the actions performed under their shelter more acceptable to God, strengthen us to perform good works, and help us to devote to Him not merely those good works which are, so to say, the fruits of a holy will, but to consecrate that will itself, the source of all we do, to Him." [...]
"When children begin to use their reason, fathers and mothers should take great pains to fill their hearts with the fear of God. This the good Queen Blanche did most earnestly by St. Louis, her son: witness her oft-repeated words, 'My son, I would sooner see you die than guilty of a mortal sin,' words [...]
"Jealousy never arises where love is built up on true virtue, and therefore it is a sure sign of an earthly, sensual love, in which mistrust and inconstancy is soon infused. It is a sorry kind of friendship which seeks to strengthen itself by jealously; for though jealousy may be a sign of strong, hot [...]
"When the soul is purged of the evil humors of sin, it experiences a ravenous hunger for spiritual things, and sets to work as one famished at all manner of spiritual exercises: mortification, penitence, humility, charity, prayer. Doubtless such an appetite is a good sign, but it behooves you to reflect whether you are able [...]