"Practical activity will always be insufficient unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, God is Love: Deus Caritas Est, Ignatius Press, 2006.
"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
"If, therefore, a marriage is based wholly upon feeling and emotion, then love dies when the emotion dies. But where there is a love of the person because of the nobility of character and good-heartedness, then love never ends, but increases from day to day." Source: Sheen Fulton, Guide to Contentment, Alba House, 2010. [...]
"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.
"On the initial day of the retreat, I was visited by one of the sisters who had come to make her perpetual vows. She confided to me that she had no trust in God and became discouraged at every little thing. I answered her, 'It is well that you have told me this, Sister; I [...]
"Saint Paul, in his hymn to charity (cf. 1 Cor 13), teaches us that it is always more than activity alone: 'If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing.'" Source: Pope Benedict XVI, God is Love: Deus Caritas [...]
"The fact that we conceal sins makes them peculiarly our own. Then they are not just our fault; they are our very penalty. Any concealed fault lays a heavy burden on the soul over and above the remorse for the sin itself. The shame of having hid it in the heart always makes the hider [...]
"Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast, and turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk [...]
“The Church feels the urgent need to proclaim God’s mercy. Her life is authentic and credible only when she becomes a convincing herald of mercy.” Source: Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus: BULL OF INDICTION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
"Let us love the virtues and inward goodness, and let us always apply ourselves and take care to avoid attaching importance to externals." Source: Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Dover Thrift Editions, 2012.