"Have, then, charity for your brethren. Let your first love be for them. It would be a great misfortune for you to have more charity for people out-doors than for those of the family." Source: St. Peter Julian Eymard, The Divine Eucharist St. Peter Julian Eymard was a priest and the founder of the [...]
"But while extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall, who, in their desire to speak evil of no one, actually uphold and speak well of vice." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002. [...]
"No virtue can have life in it except from charity, and charity is nursed and mothered by humility. You will find humility in the knowledge of yourself when you see that even your own existence comes not from yourself but from [God], for [He] loved you before you came into being." Source: St. Catherine [...]
"In the account of Jacob’s ladder, the Fathers of the Church saw this inseparable connection between ascending and descending love, between eros which seeks God and agape which passes on the gift received, symbolized in various ways." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, God is Love: Deus Caritas Est, Ignatius Press, 2006.
"Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in one’s self is a hysterical and superstitious belief." Source: G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Moody Publishers, 2009.
"Only when a box is empty can it be filled; only when the ego is deflated can God pour in His blessings. Some are already so stuffed with their own ego that it is impossible for love of neighbor or love of God to enter." Source: Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, Way to Happiness, St. [...]
"First keep peace with yourself; then you will be able to bring peace to others. A peaceful man does more good than a learned man. Whereas a passionate man turns even good to evil and is quick to believe evil, the peaceful man, being good himself, turns all things to good." Source: Thomas a’ [...]
"My daughter, I entreat you never speak evil of any, either directly or indirectly; beware of ever unjustly imputing sins or faults to your neighbor, of needlessly disclosing his real faults, of exaggerating such as are overt, of attributing wrong motives to good actions, of denying the good that you know to exist in another, [...]
"The first food, then, is humility: bitter but medicinal; the second is charity: sweet and soothing; the third is contemplation: solid and strength giving." Source: St. Bernard of Clairvaux, The Steps of Humility and Pride (Note: This quote was incorrectly attributed to St. Augustine when it was initially posted here.)
"Yet eros and agape – ascending and descending love – can never be completed separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if Eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a [...]