“Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom You light the night, and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.”

We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake.

I am the herald of the Great King.

The Father willed that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should through his own blood offer himself as a sacrificial victim on the altar of the cross. This was to be done not for himself through whom all things were made, but for our sins.

Holy charity confounds all diabolical and fleshly temptations and all fleshly fears.

Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, Who is the day through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour; of You, Most High, he bears the likeness.

No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.

For it is in giving that we receive.

Pure, holy simplicity confounds all the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the flesh.

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

If a superior give any order to one who is under him which is against that man’s conscience, although he do not obey it yet he shall not be dismissed.

We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather, we must be simple, humble and pure.

It is not fitting, when one is in God’s service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.

If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.

Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it does not possess anything of its own beneath the sun, for the glory of your name, and that it have no other patrimony than begging.

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.

Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

Scars are beautiful when we see them as glorious reminders that we courageously survived.

One evening I sat Beauty on my knees – And I found her bitter – And I reviled her.

When you start falling for somebody and you can’t stop thinking about when you’re going to see them again, I love that. Women are beautiful. They deserve to be cherished and respected.

She’s a beautiful wildness on fire.

She has a choice. She can either accept a life of misery or she can struggle against it. And she chooses to struggle…she fails in the end but there’s something beautiful and even heroic in her rebellion.

If you want to honor me, give some young boy or girl who’s coming along trying to create arts and write and compose and sing and act and paint and dance and make something out of the beauties of the Negro race-give that child some help.

Where youthful beauty is unconscious, mature beauty is knowing and sophisticated.

The audience’s reactions are more important: if people believe in the love story, it’s because they love how we’ve acted. That’s the most beautiful award. It’s very important for me, people appreciating what I do.