Teresa Of Avila

Blessed be He, Who came into the world for no other purpose than to suffer.

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.

If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you.

If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few!

Be happy when you are blamed and accused wrongly, for then you have the chance to see all the bitter, hostile or self-pitying responses that your sinful soul wants to spew out - as if these puny things could in any way defend you! Watch and see if any of these poisons come out of you when your spirit is pricked by an accusation. Only then can you see yourself as you are, and confess thy sin that is within you and forsake yourself again into the Lord's care.

Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God. God alone is sufficient.

My father was a man of great charity towards the poor, and compassion for the sick, and also for servants; so much so, that he never could be persuaded to keep slaves, for he pitied them so much: and a slave belonging to one of his brothers being once in his house, was treated by him with as much tenderness as his own children.

From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.

To have courage for whatever comes in life - everything lies in that.

How friendly all men would be one with another, if no regard were paid to honour and money! I believe it would be a remedy for everything.

It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature nor our origin.

Don't let your sins turn into bad habits.

There seem to me a great many blessings which come from true poverty and I should be sorry to be deprived of them.

Contemplative prayer [oración mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.

We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty.

It is certain that the love of God does not consist in this sweetness and tenderness which we for the most part desire; but rather in serving Him in justice, fortitude, and humility. His Majesty seeks and loves courageous souls.

O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.

If I should say anything that is not in conformity with what is held by the Holy Roman Catholic Church, it will be through ignorance and not through malice. This may be taken as certain, and also that, through God's goodness, I am, and shall always be, as I always have been, subject to her.

Half-instructed confessors have done my soul great harm; for I could not always have such learned ones as I would have desired. They certainly did not wish to deceive me, but the fact was that they knew no better. Of something which was a venial sin, they said it was no sin, and out of a very grave mortal sin they made a venial sin. This has done me such harm, that my speaking here of so great an evil, as a warning to others, will be readily understood.

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

The life of the spirit is not our life, but the life of God within us.