“If it were given to a man to see virtue’s reward in the next world, he would occupy his intellect, memory and will in nothing but good works, careless of danger or fatigue.”

Obedience is a penance of reason, and, on that account, a sacrifice more acceptable than all corporal penances and mortifications.

Let my soul live as if separated from my body.

Yearning: It needs to hurt in order to be worthy of the word. Otherwise it is just wanting.

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.

To love is to be transformed into what we love. To love God is therefore to be transformed into God.

Never listen to accounts of the frailty of others; and if anyone should complain to you of another, humbly ask him not to speak about him at all.

Faith is the union of God and the soul.

Seek in reading and thou shalt find in meditation; knock in prayer and it shall be opened in contemplation.

To reach satisfaction in all desire its possession in nothing, To come to the knowledge of all desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to possess all desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all desire to be nothing.

If you lose an opportunity you will be like one who lets the bird fly away; you will never get it back.

They say, “God told me”, or “God replied to me”. And yet most of the time they are talking to themselves.

Never relax, for you will not attain to the possession of true spiritual delights if first you do not learn to deny your every desire.

The road is narrow. He who wishes to travel it more easily must cast off all things and use the cross as his cane. In other words, he must be truly resolved to suffer willingly for the love of God in all things.

Lord, I shall see you no more with the eyes of the flesh.

He who interrupts the course of his spiritual exercises and prayer is like a man who allows a bird to escape from his hand; he can hardly catch it again.

The soul that walks in love neither tires others nor grows tired.

You wouldn’t worry so much about what other people thought about you if you knew how seldom they did.

I win because I learned years ago that scared money always loses. I never care, so I win.

Science neither cares to please nor to displease. She is inhuman. It is not science but poetry that charms and consoles. And that is why poetry is more necessary than science.

All I try to do in the press is to be honest about something that I really care about.

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Teach us to care and not to care

Hate me for who I am, I don’t care. At least I’m not pretending to be someone I’m not.

The others don’t like my interviews. And frankly, I don’t care much for theirs.