"God does not give Himself to a chattering soul which, like a drone in a beehive, buzzes around but gathers no honey. A talkative soul is empty inside. It lacks both the essential virtues and intimacy with God. A deeper interior life, one of gentle peace and of that silence where the Lord dwells, is [...]
"But by the precept He gave, God commended obedience, which is, in a sort, the mother and guardian of all the virtues in the reasonable creature, which was so created that submission is advantageous to it, while the fulfillment of its own will in preference to the Creator’s is destruction." -St. Augustine
"Development must include not just material growth but also spiritual growth, since the human person is a 'unity of body and soul', born of God’s creative love and destined for eternal life." -Pope Benedict XVI
"In the world, slander has caused many a breakup, but in monastic communities it is gluttony that brings about all the falls and transgressions. Keep mistress gluttony under control and every abode will then give you dispassion, but let her take hold of you and every place outside the grave will be a menace to [...]
"The life of a man is vagrant, changeful, desultory, like that of children chasing butterflies, until he has discovered for himself why he is here and where he is going." -Ven. Fulton Sheen
"The life of a good religious ought to abound in every virtue so that he is interiorly what to others he appears to be. With good reason there ought to be much more within than appears on the outside, for He who sees within is God. Whom we ought to reverence most highly wherever we [...]
"To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity. " -Pope Benedict XVI
"I cannot understand how humility exists, or can exist, without love, or love without humility, and it is impossible for these two virtues to exist save where there is great detachment from all created things." -St. Teresa of Avila
"We ought to serve God, for we are His creatures and His property. Although God gives us liberty, He does not mean to relinquish His rights over us. We belong to Him, we are His; and should we endeavor to free ourselves by disobedience, which is a true robbery of God's goods, a denial of [...]
"When we judge our own heart guilty, if we treat it gently, rather in a spirit of pity than anger, encouraging it to amendment, its repentance will be much deeper and more lasting than if stirred up in vehemence and wrath." -St. Francis de Sales