"Simply turn with your whole heart toward Jesus Christ Crucified, and lovingly kiss His Sacred Feet. This is the best way to conquer the Enemy, whether in small or great temptations; for inasmuch as the Love of God contains the perfection of every virtue, and that more excellently than the very virtues themselves; it is [...]
"The flatterer is a servant of the devils, a teacher of pride, the destroyer of contrition, a vandal of excellence, a perverse guide. The prophet says this: 'Those who honor you deceive you' (Isa. 3:12)." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
"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.
"I would have you know that every virtue of yours and every vice is put into action by means of your neighbors. If you hate [God], you harm your neighbors and yourself as well (for you are your chief neighbor), and the harm is both general and particular." Source: St. Catherine of Siena, The [...]
"What cruelty, to refuse to help either oneself or others by loving virtue and hating vice! But some actually extend their cruelty even further, not only refusing the good example of virtue but in their wickedness assuming the role of the devil by dragging others as much as they can from virtue and leading them [...]
"A proud soul is the slave of cowardice. Trusting only itself, it is frightened by a sound or a shadow." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
"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 [...]
"If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations. On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we had [...]
"There are two goals, vice and virtue, and both require perseverance. If you would reach life, you must persevere in virtue, and if you would reach eternal death, persevere in vice." Source: St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Paulist Press, 1980 The Dialogue was dictated by Catherine over a period of five days. Three [...]
"If sensual affection wants to love sensual things, the eye of understanding is moved in that direction. It takes for its object only passing things with selfish love, contempt for virtue, and love of vice, drawing from these pride and impatience. And the memory is filled only with what affection holds out to it. This [...]