"Beware that you be not deceived by self-love, for sometimes it counterfeits the Love of God so cleverly that you may mistake one for the other. To avoid this, and to prevent a due care for your temporal interests from degenerating into avarice, it is needful often to practice a real poverty amid the riches [...]
"Further, directly you are conscious of an angry act, atone for the fault by some speedy act of meekness toward the person who excited your anger." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"If you long earnestly, anxiously, and persistently after what you do not possess, it is all very well to say that you do not wish to get it unfairly, but you are all the time guilty of avarice." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002. [...]
"Do not let that mind which is the likeness of God cleave to mere earthly goods; let it always be raised above them, not sunk in them." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
“'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God;' and if so, woe be to the rich in spirit, for theirs must be the bitterness of Hell. By rich in spirit I mean him whose riches engross his mind, or whose mind is buried in his riches. He is poor in spirit [...]
"The Angels on Jacob’s ladder had wings, yet nevertheless they did not fly, but went in due order up and down the steps of the ladder. The soul which rises from out of sin to a devout life has been compared to the dawn, which does not banish darkness suddenly, but by degrees." Source: [...]
"Do not then let us be disheartened by our imperfections. Our very perfection lies in diligently contending against them, and it is impossible so to contend without seeing them, or to overcome without meeting them face-to-face." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"Of a truth, my daughter, without purity no one can ever see God; nor can any hope to dwell in His tabernacle except he lead an uncorrupt life; and our Blessed Lord Himself has promised the special blessing of beholding Him to those that are pure in heart." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction [...]
"Purity is the lily among virtues – by it men approach to the Angels. There is no beauty without purity, and human purity is chastity. We speak of the chaste as honest, and of the loss of purity as dishonor; purity is an intact thing, its converse is corruption." Source: St. Francis de Sales, [...]
"Love alone leads to perfection, but the three chief means for acquiring it are obedience, chastity, and poverty. Obedience is a consecration of the heart, chastity of the body, and poverty of all worldly goods to the Love and Service of God. These are the three members of the Spiritual Cross, and all three must [...]