"Father Thébaud was a man full of energy, even in old age, an untiring student, and well-informed scholar. Withal he was a most agreeable companion, witty and full of life, and universally beloved by his friends and his pupils."

"It is not by a succession of periods of progress and decay only That nations manifest their life and individuality. Taking any one of them at any period of its existence, and comparing it with others, peculiarities immediately show themselves which give it a particular physiognomy whereby it may be at once distinguished from any other; so that, in those agglomerations of men which we call nations or races, we see the variety everywhere observable in Nature, the variety by which God manifests the infinite activity of his creative power."

"Bishop Flaget's great experience, absolute self-denial, and holy life gave him great influence in the councils of the Church and at Rome."

"While the religious idea of a crusade inspired the secular policy of Père Joseph, intense sacerdotal and Apostolic zeal characterized him amid all his political preoccupations."

"Fear is a natural passion, which, like all the others, is in itself neither bad nor good, but bad when it is excessive and disquieting, good when it is subordinate to reason."

"Give to the faithful the example of submission and obedience to the Republic. You have long cherished the hope of enjoying the liberty which makes our brethren of the United States so happy; the liberty you shall have."

"In explaining the Sacred Text he made an excellent use of his great familiarity with Greek grammar and authors, availed himself chiefly of the commentaries of St. John Chrysostom and Theodoret, and always remained an enlightened and safe theologian."

"Renaudot was, nevertheless, a pioneer in relief work for the poor, journalism, and medicine. The medical theories which he had held against the medical faculties of his times in favour of the use of antimony, laudanum, and quinine, have prevailed since his death."

"Gentle as I am now towards every one, it is part of my character never to give way to fear, or to do anything under compulsion."

"Learned, theological, lucid, varied, firm. supernatural, and austere. Mgr. d'Hulst's direction was also sincere. 1 mean he was ever anxious to practise himself what he counselled others to do"

"When a priest can do any good to a soul he must make that his first business."

"He was, in the nineteenth century, a superb type of the valiant knight, devoted heart and soul to the defence of the pope's temporal sovereignty, and consecrated himself to that cause in the same spirit which actuated the Crusades of the Middle Ages."

"Sire, God protect the crown of the king, for many royal crowns too have been shattered."

"Mary was conceived without sin. Behold! what the Church of Paris glories in professing and maintaining; what her Doctors hold it an honor to teach and defend; what her children are jealous of preserving as one of their dearest possessions after the sacred dogmas of faith; what they do not hesitate to regard as an immediate consequence of their faith, not believing it possible to separate in Mary, the title of Immaculate Virgin from that of Virgin Mother of God, and not considering it possible to refuse the privilege of a Conception without spot, to her who was to receive and who indeed did receive, that of the divine Maternity."

"A contemporary is always at a disadvantage in forming a clear opinion of his age, of those deep causes of which the slow but measured action must inevitably transform society."

"It cannot be said that Mary's Redemption is of a different kind from ours, because it is the same redemption as Christ's, but in its supreme fulfillment and with its own modes of anticipation and perfection."

"If she is our queen, we too will reign with Christ; Mary is not superior to us except in being closer to us."

"Mary shared the obscure condition of faith that is that of the other redeemed."

"Through the apparitions at Lourdes, Our Lady wanted to restore in us a love for the poor and for poverty, a love that is ingenious and liberating."

"Conversion: this is the word that most specifically expresses the meaning of pilgrimage."

"The events at Lourdes present an order, a harmony that becomes increasingly apparent as one delves deeper."

"Thérèse of Lisieux was one of the sources of inspiration for the philosopher Henri Bergson during the final stage of his search, in which he found God thanks to the testimony of mystics."

"One is capable of mercy to the extent that one knows one is the object of mercy."

"One cannot understand the sinner through sin, because sin is not a positive technique: in its essence it is deprivation, absence, nothingness; it is sin to the exact extent that it decapitates the good of the act performed. It is therefore not a factor of understanding but of obscurity."

"There is no true love for the sinner without hatred for his sin."

"If heaven chooses what does not exist according to the world, it is not for the gratuitous pleasure of mocking the world."

"The Virgin [Mary] is the one in whom no sin has diminished love."

"The prayer of Bernadette is contagious."

"Lourdes does not disappoint, even though miracles remain the exception there."

"Mass and the Body of Christ have become the very center of pilgrimage to Lourdes."

"Christ does not even grant her [to Mary] the satisfactions of motherhood according to the flesh, however legitimate they may be."

"The mid-19th century saw the triumph of the reign of money over the medieval reign of honor and traditions."

"We sinners oscillate dangerously between harshness and complicity towards others."

"I am a sacrificed man; may the divine will be done."

"Allow Father Leray to go into Vicksburg? Why, I would sooner let in Forrest's Brigade."

"To live in the heart of Christ, in the heart of the Trinity, one must live with Mary."

"If Mary is full of grace, it is because she is the Mother of God."

"Suffering teaches charity, abandonment to God, detachment. Suffering teaches us to see and understand. Suffering teaches us to alleviate, to sympathize, to console those who suffer."

"(In respect of suicide) because it was not her days she wanted to end, but the pain that tortured her."

"I don't like reading the lives of saints because each one has their own nuances. I prefer doctrine, not imitation."

"One never implores Mary in vain. I have firm faith that she will grant my request because I believe that we have no other hope than to turn to Divine Providence, which never abandons anyone."

"It does not occur to me to kneel [before Our Lady] but to fly towards her, not to ask, but with a feeling of gratitude and love."

"Transforming all my actions into supernatural and divine actions is the most beautiful of truths, it is the greatest and ultimate word of love."

"Do not leave poisons on the bedside tables of the sick."

"My life is a continuous Mass. I never feel that my bed is a bed; it is an altar, it is a cross."

"The role of Our Lady is to take care of the details, all the details; it is her maternal function that leads her to this."

"The priest encouraged me to pray without saying anything to me."

"I have always prayed enormously in my life."

"Jesus did not promise to take away our cross. He told us to carry it on our shoulders, but with Jesus, the cross becomes all love."

"I want to shout to those who ask me if I eat that I eat more than they do, because I feed on the Eucharist of the Blood and Flesh of Jesus. I want to tell them that they are the ones who block the effects of this nourishment within themselves, they block its effects."