"Vices do not submit without a struggle. For however well one maintains the conflict, and however thoroughly he has subdued these enemies, there steals in some evil thing, which, if it does not find ready expression in act, slips out by the lips, or insinuates itself into the thought; and therefore his peace is not [...]
"We must make it clear, on the one hand, that the logic of gift does not exclude justice; nor does it merely sit alongside it as a second element added from without; on the other hand, economic, social and political development, if it is to be authentically human, needs to make room for the principle [...]
"If what you have commenced well by grace you finish by self-love, it becomes worthless as far as recompense is concerned. So, venial sin renders good things bad. It looks out for them in order eventually to destroy them. We are then, like the laborer who sees the hail destroying in the twinkling of an [...]
"Foremost among the soul’s affections is love. Love is the ruler of every motion of the heart; drawing all to itself, and making us like to that we love." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
“Know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue." Source: St. Faustina, Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul
"The man who 'looks' in the way described in Matthew 5:27-28 'makes use' of the woman, of her femininity, to satisfy his own 'drive.' Even if he does not use her in an external act, he has already taken such an attitude in his interior when he makes this decision about a particular woman. Adultery [...]
"Blessed is he who keeps the moment of death ever before his eyes and prepares for it every day." Source: Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Dover Thrift Editions, 1940.
"Sometimes we pride ourselves on the merit of having become a religious, and think we have done a heroic action. Alas! we are in arrears with mercy. The advantage is all on our side. We receive a hundred times more than we have given." Source: St. Peter Julian Eymard, The Divine Eucharist St. Peter [...]
"Do not complain then of your poverty, my daughter. We only complain of that which is unwelcome, and if poverty is unwelcome to you, you are no longer poor in spirit." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"To what dangers and sufferings people will submit themselves on land and sea to acquire great wealth, to return later to their own city with pleasures and honors! Yet they neither try not care to acquire the virtues or to suffer the least bit of pain to have them, though these are the riches of [...]