“Happy the heart where love has come to birth.”

Much more is accomplished by a single word of the Our Father said, now and then, from our heart, than by the whole prayer repeated many times in haste and without attention.

It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not always be the same.

Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith. Patient endurance attends to all things.

You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.

Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with His sign, which is the sign of the Cross, in token that they have given Him their freedom.

From heaven even the most miserable life will look like one bad night at an inconvenient hotel.

Let us live in such a way as not to be afraid to die.

The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.

Love makes labour light. Love alone gives value to all things.

Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.

Love turns work into rest.

It is a great folly to be willing to violate the friendship of God, rather than the law of human friendship.

It is not a matter of thinking a great deal but of loving a great deal, so do whatever arouses you most to love.

Don’t imagine that, if you had a great deal of time, you would spend more of it in prayer. Get rid of that idea; it is no hindrance to prayer to spend your time well.

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.

It is of great importance, when we begin to practise prayer, not to let ourselves be frightened by our own thoughts.

If men found out how to give birth to children they’ll never propose again.

Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.

I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.

And better had they ne’er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

Where were you born?” “On a battlefield,” [Yossarian] answered. “No, no. In what state were you born?” “In a state of innocence.

The softest breeze to fairest flowers gives birth: Think not that Prudence dwells in dark abodes, She scans the future with the eye of gods.

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

I do think that some people are born as old souls.