"There is hardly ever a complete silence in our souls. God is whispering to us wellnigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. This is so invariable that we come to believe he is always whispering to us, only that we do not always hear, because of the hurry, noise, and distraction which life causes as it rushes on."

"I have no cares, O blessed Will! For all my cares are Thine; I live in triumph, Lord! for Thou Hast made Thy triumphs mine."

"Labor is sweet, for Thou hast toiled, And care is light, for Thou hast cared; Let not our works with self be soiled, Nor in unsimple ways ensnared. Through life's long day and death's dark night, O gentle Jesus! be our light."

"Other things being equal, a person beginning the spiritual life with a taste for reading has a much greater chance both of advancing and of persevering than one who is destitute of such a taste. Experience shows that it is almost equal to a grace. The hardest thing in the world is to think, that is, to think real thought."

"O Paradise! O Paradise! The world is growing old; Who would not be at rest and free Where love is never cold?"

"The very attempt to be like our dearest Lord is already a well-spring of sweetness within us, flowing with an easy grace over all who come within our reach."

"We must have passed through life very unobservantly, if we have never perceived that a man is very much himself what he thinks of others."

"To children is there any happiness which is not also noise?"

"Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or kind deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they imply also a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still."

"The habit of judging is so nearly incurable, and its cure is such an almost interminable process, that we must concentrate ourselves for a long while on keeping it in check; and this check is to be found in kind interpretations.… We must grow to something higher and something truer than a quickness in detecting evil."

"There is a great deal of self-will in the world, but very little genuine independence of character."

"If our thoughts break their bounds, and run out beyond the Church … to those without, I have no profession of faith to make about them, except that God is infinitely merciful to every soul, that no one ever has been, or ever can be, lost by surprise or trapped in his ignorance; and, as to those who may be lost, I confidently believe that our Heavenly Father threw His arms round each created spirit, and looked it full in the face with bright eyes of love, in the darkness of its mortal life, and that of its own deliberate will it would not have Him."

"Holiness is an unselfing of ourselves."

"Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning."

"No kind action ever stopped with itself. Fecundity belongs to it in its own right. One kind action leads to another. By one we commit ourselves to more than one. Our example is followed. The single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make fresh trees, and the rapidity of the growth is equal to its extent. But this fertility is not confined to ourselves, or to others who may be kind to the same person to whom we have been kind. It is chiefly to be found in the person himself whom we have benefited. This is the greatest work which kindness does to others,—that it makes them kind themselves."

"This world is … only the porch of another and more magnificent temple of the Creator's majesty."

"A spiritual life without a very large allowance of disquietude in it is no spiritual life at all. It is but a flattering superstition of self-love."

"Is the amount of scrupulous attention which I am paying to the government of my tongue at all proportioned to that tremendous truth revealed through St. James, that if I do not bridle my tongue, all my religion is vain?"

"When men do anything for God, the very least thing, they never know where it will end, nor what amount of work it will do for Him. Love's secret, therefore, is to be always doing things for God, and not to mind because they are such very little ones."

"Exactness in little duties is a wonderful source of cheerfulness."

"All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that are to be said about Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done; but that matters not; for we shall be always with Him, and we desire nothing more."

"The buried talent is the sunken rock on which most lives strike and founder."

"What another being is life when we have found out our Father; and if we work, it is beneath His eye, and if we play, it is in the light and encouragement of His smile. Earth's sunshine is heaven's radiance, and the stars of night as if the beginning of the Beatific Vision; so soft, so sweet, so gentle, so reposeful, so almost infinite have all things become, because we have found our Father in our God."

"How are we to overcome temptations? Cheerfulness is the first thing, cheerfulness the second, and cheerfulness the third. The devil is chained. He can bark, but he cannot bite, unless we go up to him and let him do so."

"Words cannot tell the abhorrence nature has of the piecemeal captivity of little constraints. And as to little temptations, I can readily conceive a man having the grace to be roasted over a slow fire for our dearest Mother's Immaculate Conception or the Pope's Supremacy, who would not have the grace to keep his temper in a theological conversation on either of these points of the Catholic faith."

"Now we must remember, that if all the manifestly good men were on one side, and all the manifestly bad men on the other, there would be no danger of any one, least of all the elect, being deceived by lying wonders. It is the good men ,good once, we must hope good still, who are to do the work of the Antichrist, and so sadly to crucify afresh the Lord whom they … more than profess to love. Bear in mind this feature of the last days, that their deceitfulness arises from good men being on the wrong side."

"I find great numbers of moderately good people who think it fine to take scandal. They regard it as a sort of evidence of their own goodness, and of their delicacy of conscience; while in reality it is only a proof either of their inordinate conceit or of their extreme stupidity."

"Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home."

"Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day."

"A thousand ages in Thy sight Are like an evening gone; Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun."

"Then will I set my heart to find Inward adornings of the mind; Knowledge and virtue, truth and grace, These are the robes of richest dress."

"I have been there, and still would go; 'T is like a little heaven below."

"Why should our garments, made to hide Our parents' shame, provoke our pride? The art of dress did ne'er begin, Till Eve our mother learn'd to sin.When first she put the covering on, Her robe of innocence was gone; And yet her children vainly boast In the sad marks of glory lost."

"Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber, Holy angels guard thy bed! Heavenly blessings without number Gently falling on thy head."

"In works of labour or of skill I would be busy too: For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do."

"From all who dwell below the skies Let the Creator's praise arise; Let the Redeemer's name be sung Through every land, by every tongue."

"In books, or work, or healthful play, Let my first years be past, That I may give for every day Some good account at last."

"Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God hath made them so; Let bears and lions growl and fight, For 't is their nature too."

"But, children, you should never let Such angry passions rise; Your little hands were never made To tear each other's eyes."

"Birds in their little nests agree; And 'tis a shameful sight, When children of one family Fall out, and chide, and fight."

"...but every lyar Must have his portion in the lake That burns with brimstone and with fire."

"A flower may fade before 'tis noon, And I this day may lose my breath."

"One stroke of his almighty rod Shall send young sinners quick to hell."

"Let me be dressed fine as I will, Flies, worms, and flowers, exceed me still."

"The wise will make their anger cool At least before 'tis night."

"And he that does one fault at first And lies to hide it, makes it two."

"How divinely full of glory and pleasure shall that hour be when all the millions of mankind that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God shall meet together and stand around Him, with every tongue and every heart full of joy and praise! How astonishing will be the glory and the joy of that day when all the saints shall join together in one common song of gratitude and love, and of everlasting thankfulness to this Redeemer! With what unknown delight, and inexpressible satisfaction, shall all that are saved from the ruins of sin and hell address the Lamb that was slain, and rejoice in His presence!"

"I would not change my native land For rich Peru with all her gold. A nobler prize lies in my hand Than East or Western Indies hold."