"The first step toward freedom from anger is to keep the lips silent when the heart is stirred; the next, to keep thoughts silent when the soul is upset; the last to be totally calm when unclean winds are blowing." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
"Our enjoyment of life is vastly increased if we follow the spiritual injunction to bring some mortification and self-denial into our lives." Source: Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, Way to Happiness, St. Pauls, 1998.
"Christianity came in here as before. It came startlingly with a sword and clove one thing from another. It divided the crime from the criminal. The criminal we must forgive unto seventy times seven. The crime we must not forgive at all." Source: G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Moody Publishers, 2009.
"This is the great wisdom – to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to [...]
"It is very certain that the love of God supplies for everything, suffices for everything. But when it does not purify from sin, it is not true, or not yet very strong. The first effect of love is to purify. For this reason, we must go on examining sin, its fatal consequences, to awaken horror [...]
"Now self-love is a restless, anxious, overeager love, and so the work done on its behalf is troubled, vexatious, and unsatisfactory; whereas the Love of God is calm, peaceful, and tranquil, and so the work done for its sake, even in worldly things, is gentle, trustful, and quiet." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction [...]
"The safe and true way to heaven is made by humility, which lifts up the heart to the Lord, not against Him." Source: St. Augustine, City of God
"Freedom from anger is an endless wish for dishonor, whereas among the vainglorious there is a limitless thirst for praise. Freedom from anger is a triumph over one’s nature. It is the ability to be impervious to insults, and comes by hard work and the sweat of one’s brow." Source: St. John Climacus, The [...]
"One of the greatest mistakes is to think that contentment comes from something outside us rather than from a quality of the soul. Trying to make a discontented person happy is like trying to fill a sieve with water. However much you pour into it, it runs out too rapidly for you to catch up." [...]
"If men did for the good God and for their soul what they do to succeed in business affairs or in any other state in which they are, they would soon become saints." Source: St. Peter Julian Eymard, The Divine Eucharist St. Peter Julian Eymard was a priest and the founder of the Congregation [...]