Great Throughts Treasury

"There is no one in the world who cannot arrive without difficulty at the most eminent perfection by fulfilling with love obscure and common duties."

"God instructs the heart not by means of ideas, but by pains and contradiction"

"The one thing necessary is always to be found by the soul in the present moment. There is no need to choose between prayer and silence, privacy or conversation, reading or writing, reflection or the abandonment of thought, the frequentation or avoidance of spiritual people, abundance or famine, illness or health, life or death; the one thing necessary is what each moment produces by God’s design."

"It is by union with his will that one enjoys and possesses God,and it is an illusion to seek for that enjoyment by any other means. The will of God is the universal means. This means does not belong to this or that method, but it has the virtue of sanctifying all methods and special calls."

"Do what you are doing now, suffer what you are suffering now; to do all this with holiness, nothing need be changed but your hearts. Sanctity consists in willing what happens to us by God’s order."

"In the shadow of death he produces life, and though the senses are terrified, faith taking all for the best, is full of courage and assurance."