Background Image

...

The Past But Lives In Written Words: A Thousand Ages Were Blank If Books Had Not Evoked Their Ghosts, And Kept The Pale Unbodied Shades To Warn Us From Fleshless Lips.

-Francois Fenelon

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Past But Lives

Francois Fenelon

...

The Past But Lives In Written Words: A Thousand Ages Were Blank If Books Had Not Evoked Their Ghosts, And Kept The Pale Unbodied Shades To Warn Us From Fleshless Lips.

Views: 90031

Topic

More From Francois Fenelon

Avoid All Refined Speculations; Confine Yourself To Simple Reflections, And Recur To Them Frequently. Those Who Pass Too Rapidly From One Truth To Another Feed Their Curiosity And Restlessness; They Even Distract Their Intellect With Too Great A Multiplicity Of Views. Give Every Truth Time To Send Down Deep Root Into The Heart.

Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit." Blessed Are They Who Are Stripped Of Every Thing, Even Of Their Own Wills, That They May No Longer Belong To Themselves.

As To Our Friend , I Pray God To Bestow Upon Him A Simplicity That Shall Give Him Peace . Happy Are They Indeed Who Can Bear Their Sufferings In The Enjoyment Of This Simple Peace And Perfect Acquiesence In The Will Of God.

True Prayer Is Only Another Name For The Love Of God. Its Excellence Does Not Consist In The Multitude Of Our Words; For Our Father Knoweth What Things We Have Need Of Before We Ask Him. The True Prayer Is That Of The Heart, And The Heart Prays Only For What It Desires. To Pray, Then Is To Desire -- But To Desire What God Would Have Us Desire. He Who Asks What He Does Not From The Bottom Of His Heart Desire, Is Mistaken In Thinking That He Prays.

Nothing Is More Despicable Than A Professional Talker Who Uses His Words As A Quack Uses His Remedies

God Bears With Imperfect Beings Even When They Resist His Goodness. We Ought To Imitate This Merciful Patience And Endurance. It Is Only Imperfection That Complains Of What Is Imperfect. The More Perfect We Are, The More Gentle And Quiet We Become Toward The Defects Of Other People.

Oh! How Seldom The Soul Is Silent, In Order That God May Speak.

When We Are Truly In This Interior Simplicity Our Whole Appearance Is Franker, More Natural. This True Simplicity. . . Makes Us Conscious Of A Certain Openness, Gentleness, Innocence, Gaiety, And Serenity. O, How Amiable This Simplicity Is! Who Will Give It To Me? I Leave All For This. It Is The Pearl Of The Gospel.

Let Us Often Think Of Our Own Infirmities, And We Shall Become Indulgent Toward Those Of Others.

Easily Offended

Thou Lovest Like An Infinite God When Thou Lovest; Thou Movest Heaven And Earth To Save Thy Loved Ones. Thou Becomest Man, A Babe, The Vilest Of Men, Covered With Reproaches, Dying With Infamy And Under The Pangs Of The Cross; All This Is Not Too Much For An Infinite Love.

The Art Of Cookery Is The Art Of Poisoning Mankind, By Rendering The Appetite Still Importunate, When The Wants Of Nature Are Supplied.

How Can You Expect God To Speak In That Gentle And Inward Voice Which Melts The Soul, When You Are Making So Much Noise With Your Rapid Reflections? Be Silent And God Will Speak Again.

If We Were Faultless We Should Not Be So Much Annoyed By The Defects Of Those With Whom We Associate.

Pure Love Is In The Will Alone; It Is No Sentimental Love, For The Imagination Has No Part In It; It Loves, If We May So Express It, Without Feeling, As Faith Believes Without Seeing.

There Is No More Dangerous Illusion Than The Fancies By Which People Try To Avoid Illusion.

Faith Is Letting Down Our Nets Into The Transparent Deeps At The Divine Command, Not Knowing What We Shall Draw.

The Passion Of Acquiring Riches In Order To Support A Vain Expense Corrupts The Purest Souls.

Were In Prayer, As Indeed You Ought To Be.

Crosses Are Of No Use To Us But Inasmuch As We Yield Ourselves Up To Them And Forget Ourselves.

Most People I Ask Little From. I Try To Give Them Much, And Expect Nothing In Return And I Do Very Well In The Bargain.

Let Us Endeavor To Commence Every Enterprise With A Pure View To The Glory Of God, Continue It Without Distraction, And Finish It Without Impatience.

If We Had Strength And Faith Enough To Trust Ourselves Entirely To God; And Follow Him Simply Wherever He Should Lead Us, We Should Have No Need Of Any Great Effort Of Mind To Reach Perfection.

Before Putting Yourself In Peril, It Is Necessary To Foresee And Fear It; But When One Is There, Nothing Remains But To Despise It.

The Youth Who, Like A Woman, Loves To Adorn His Person, Has Renounced All Claim To Wisdom And To Glory; Glory Is Due To Those Only Who Dare To Associate With Pain, And Have Trampled Pleasure Under Their Feet.

How Dangerous It Is For Our Salvation, How Unworthy Of God And Of Ourselves, How Pernicious Even For The Peace Of Our Hearts, To Want Always To Stay Where We Are! Our Whole Life Was Only Given Us To Advance Us By Great Strides Toward Our Heavenly Country.

As The Reflections Of Our Pride Upon Our Defects Are Bitter, Disheartening, And Vexatious, So The Return Of The Soul Towards God Is Peaceful And Sustained By Confidence. You Will Find By Experience How Much More Your Progress Will Be Aided By This Simple, Peaceful Turning Towards God, Than By All Your Chagrin And Spite At .the Faults That Exist In You.

Peace Does Not Dwell In Outward Things, But Within The Soul.

Our Piety Must Be Weak And Imperfect If It Do Not Conquer Our Fear Of Death.

The Best Use One Can Make Of His Mind Is To Distrust It.

To Just Read The Bible, Attend Church, And Avoid “big” Sins-is This Passionate, Wholehearted Love For God?

It Is This Unquiet Self-love That Renders Us So Sensitive. The Sick Man, Who Sleeps Ill, Thinks The Night Long. We Exaggerate, From Cowardice, All The Evils Which We Encounter; They Are Great, But Our Sensibility Increases Them. The True Way To Bear Them Is To Yield Ourselves Up With Confidence To God.

You Can Often Help Others More By Correcting Your Own Faults Than Theirs. Remember, And You Should, Because Of Your Own Experience, That Allowing God To Correct Your Faults Is Not Easy. Be Patient With People, Wait For God To Work With Them As He Wills.

I Love My Country Better Than My Family; But I Love Humanity Better Than My Country.

All Wars Are Civil Wars Because All Men Are Brothers... Each One Owes Infinitely More To The Human Race Than To The Particular Country In Which He Was Born.

Let Us Pray God That He Would Root Out Of Our Hearts Every Thing Of Our Own Planting, And Set Out There, With His Own Hands, The Tree Of Life, Bearing All Manner Of Fruits.

Fear Is Like The Strong Medicine Used To Fight Serious Diseases; It Purges, But It Also Alters Your Temperament And Wears Out The Body Organs. A Person Who Is Driven By Fear Will Always Be The Weaker For It

Above All, Live In The Present Moment And God Will Give You All The Grace You Need.

Live In The Moment

We Must Truly Serve Those Whom We Appear To Command; We Must Bear With Their Imperfections, Correct Them With Gentleness And Patience, And Lead Them In The Way To Heaven.

Alas! How Many Souls There Are Full Of Self, And Yet Desirous Of Doing Good And Serving God, But In Such A Way As To Suit Themselves; Who Desire To Impose Rules Upon God As To His Manner Of Drawing Them To Himself. They Want To Serve And Possess Him, But They Are Not Willing To Be Possessed By Him.

The History Of The World Suggests That Without Love Of God There Is Little Likelihood Of A Love For Man That Does Not Become Corrupt.

Simplicity Is The Straightforwardness Of A Soul Which Refuses Itself Any Reaction With Regard To Itself Or Its Deeds. This Virtue Differs From And Surpasses Sincerity. We See Many People Who Are Sincere Without Being Simple. They Do Not Wish To Be Taken For Other Than What They Are; But They Are Always Fearing Lest They Should Be Taken For What They Are Not.

True Piety Hath In It Nothing Weak, Nothing Sad, Nothing Constrained. It Enlarges The Heart; It Is Simple, Free, And Attractive.

The Greatest Of All Crosses Is Self. If We Die In Part Every Day, We Shall Have But Little To Do On The Last. These Little Daily Deaths Will Destroy The Power Of The Final Dying.

A Good Historian Is Timeless; Although He Is A Patriot, He Will Never Flatter His Country In Any Respect.

Speak, Move, Act In Peace.

He Who Prays Without Confidence Cannot Hope That His Prayers Will Be Granted.

Prayer Is So Necessary, And The Source Of So Many Blessings, That He Who Has Discovered The Treasure Cannot Be Prevented From Having Recourse To It, Whenever He Has An Opportunity.

All Earthly Delights Are Sweeter In Expectation Than In Enjoyment; But All Spiritual Pleasures More In Fruition Than In Expectation.

A General Rule For The Good Use Of Time Is To Accustom Oneself To Live In A Continual Dependence On The Spirit Of God.

Pity Enlarges The Heart.

Be Content With Doing Calmly The Little Which Depends Upon Yourself, And Let All Else Be To You As If It Were Not.

To Be Faithful In Prayer It Is Indispensable That We Arrange All The Activities Of The Day With A Regularity That Nothing Can Disturb

Make This Simple Rule The Guide Of Your Life: To Have No Will But God's.

It Is Only By Fidelity In Little Things That The Grace Of True Love To God Can Be Sustained, And Distinguished From A Passing Fervor Of Spirit. . . . No One Can Well Believe That Our Piety Is Sincere, When Our Behavior Is Lax And Irregular In Its Little Details. What Probability Is There That We Should Not Hesitate To Make The Greatest Sacrifices, When We Shrink From The Smallest?

Real Friends Are Our Greatest Joy And Our Greatest Sorrow. It Were Almost To Be Wished That All True And Faithful Friends Should Expire On The Same Day.

No More Restless Uncertainties, No More Anxious Desires, No More Impatience At The Place We Are In; For It Is God Who Has Placed Us There, And Who Holds Us In His Arms. Can We Be Unsafe Where He Has Placed Us?

God Never Makes Us Sensible Of Our Weakness Except To Give Us Of His Strength.

Simplicity Is That Grace Which Frees The Soul From All Unnecessary Reflections Upon Itself.

God Is So Good That He Only Awaits Our Desire To Overwhelm Us With The Gift Of Himself.

Nothing Marks So Much The Solid Advancement Of A Soul, As The View Of One's Wretchedness Without Anxiety And Without Discouragement.

It Is Better To Die Than To Tell A Lie

It Is Often Our Own Imperfection Which Makes Us Reprove The Imperfection Of Others; A Sharp-sighted Self-love Of Others

Children Are Excellent Observers, And Will Often Perceive Your Slightest Defects. In General, Those Who Govern Children, Forgive Nothing In Them, But Everything In Themselves

You Really Don't Even Own The Present Moment, For Even This Belongs To God.

Live In The Moment

I Am Not In The Least Surprised That Your Impression Of Death Becomes More Lively, In Proportion As Age And Infirmity Bring It Nearer. God Makes Use Of This Rough Trial To Undeceive Us In Respect To Our Courage, To Make Us Feel Our Weakness, And To Keep Us In All Humility In His Hands.

Mankind, By The Perverse Depravity Of Their Nature, Esteem That Which They Have Most Desired As Of No Value The Moment It Is Possessed, And Torment Themselves With Fruitless Wishes For That Which Is Beyond Their Reach.

To Will Everything That God Wills, And To Will It Always, In All Circumstances And Without Reservations: That Is The Kingdom Of God Which Is Entirely Within.

We May As Well Tolerate All Religions, Since God Himself Tolerates All.

Speak, Move, Act In Peace, As If You Were In Prayer. In Truth, This Is Prayer.

Nothing Is So Costly As The Pursuit Of A Cure For Imaginary Ills.

There Were Some Who Said That A Man At The Point Of Death Was More Free Than All Others, Because Death Breaks Every Bond, And Over The Dead The United World Has No Power.

God's Treasury Where He Keeps His Children's Gifts Will Be Like Many A Mother's Store Of Relics Of Her Children, Full Of Things Of No Value To Others, But Precious In His Eyes For The Love's Sake That Was In Them.

Frequently A Big Advantage Can Be Gained By Knowing How To Give In At The Right Moment.

Do Not Make Best Friends With A Melancholy Sad Soul. They Always Are Heavily Loaded, And You Must Bear Half.

Exactness And Neatness In Moderation Is A Virtue, But Carried To Extremes Narrows The Mind.

Courage Is A Virtue Only So Far As It Is Directed By Prudence.

People Who Have No Secrets From Each Other Never Want For A Subject Of Conversation. They Do Not Weigh Their Words, For There Is Nothing To Be Held Back, Neither Do They Seek For Something To Say. They Talk Out Of The Abundance Of Their Heart, Without Consideration They Say Just What They Think. Blessed Are They Who Attain To Such Familiar, Unreserved Intercourse With God.

God Would Behold In You A Simplicity Which Will Contain So Much The More Of His Wisdom As It Contains Less Of Your Own.

We Are Never Less Alone Than When We Are In The Society Of A Single, Faithful Friend; Never Less Deserted Than When We Are Carried In Tne Arms Of The All-powerful.

If We Were Faultless, We Should Not Be So Much Annoyed By The Defects Of Those With Whom We Associate. If We Were To Acknowledge Honestly That We Have Not Virtue Enough To Bear Patiently With Our Neighbor's Weaknesses, We Should Show Our Own Imperfection, And This Alarms Our Vanity.

The Realization Of God's Presence Is The One Sovereign Remedy Against Temptation.

This Is The Love That Does All Things; That Brings To Pass Even The Evils We Suffer; So Shaping Them That They Are But Instruments Of Preparing The Good Which, As Yet, Has Not Arrived.

Can We Be Unsafe Where God Has Placed Us, And Where He Watches Over Us As A Parent A Child That He Loves?

We Must Avoid Fastidiousness; Neatness, When It Is Moderate, Is A Virtue; But When It Is Carried To An Extreme, It Narrows The Mind.

Violent Excitement Exhausts The Mind And Leaves It Withered And Sterile.

Should We Feel At Times Disheartened And Discouraged, A Simple Movement Of Heart Toward God Will Renew Our Powers. Whatever He May Demand Of Us, He Will Give Us At The Moment The Strength And Courage That We Need.

On This Earth All Is Temptation. Crosses Tempt Us By Irritating Our Pride, And Prosperity By Flattering It. Our Life Is A Continual Combat, But One In Which Jesus Christ Fights For Us. We Must Pass On Unmoved, While Temptations Rage Around Us, As The Traveler, Overtaken By A Storm, Simply Wraps His Cloak More Closely About Him, And Pushes On More Vigorously Toward His Destined Home.

That Love Of Self, Which The World Advocates, Is A Thousand Times More Dangerous Than Any Poison.

God Has Not Chosen To Save Us Without Crosses; As He Has Not Seen Fit To Create Men At Once In The Full Vigor Of Manhood, But Has Suffered Them To Grow Up By Degrees Amid All The Perils And Weaknesses Of Youth.

Discouragement Is Simply The Despair Of Wounded Self-love.

Knowing Who You Are

When You Come To Be Sensibly Touched, The Scales Will Fall From Your Eyes; And By The Penetrating Eyes Of Love You Will Discern That Which Your Other Eyes Will Never See.

Commit Yourself Then To God! He Will Be Your Guide. He Himself Will Travel With You, As We Are Told He Did With The Israelites, To Bring Them Step By Step Across The Desert To The Promised Land. Ah! What Will Be Your Blessedness, If You Will But Surrender Yourself Into The Hands Of God, Permitting Him To Do Whatever He Will, Not According To Your Desires, But According To His Own Good Pleasure?

The Christian Life Is A Long And Continual Tendency Of Our Hearts Toward That Eternal Goodness Which We Desire On Earth. All Our Happiness Consists In Thirsting For It. Now This Thirst Is Prayer. Ever Desire To Approach Your Creator, And You Will Never Cease To Pray. Do Not Think It Necessary To Pronounce Many Words.

How Rare It Is To Find A Soul Quiet Enough To Hear God Speak.

This Poor World, The Object Of So Much Insane Attachment, We Are About To Leave; It Is But Misery, Vanity, And Folly; A Phantom--the Very Fashion Of Which "passeth Away.

The Blood Of A Nation Ought Never To Be Shed Except For Its Own Preservation In The Utmost Extremity.

In The Light Of Eternity We Shall See That What We Desired Would Have Been Fatal To Us, And That What We Would Have Avoided Was Essential To Our Well-being.

Of All The Duties Enjoined By Christianity None Is More Essential And Yet More Neglected Than Prayer.

God, Who Is Liberal In All His Other Gifts, Shows Us, By The Wise Economy Of His Providence, How Circumspect We Ought To Be In The Management Of Our Time, For He Never Gives Us Two Moments Together.

Despondency Is Not A State Of Humility; On The Contrary, It Is The Vexation And Despair Of A Cowardly Pride--nothing Is Worse; Whether We Stumble Or Whether We Fall, We Must Only Think Of Rising Again And Going On In Our Course.

Little Opportunities Should Be Improved.

The Greater Our Dread Of Crosses, The More Necessary They Are For Us.

Accustom Yourself Gradually To Carry Prayer Into All Your Daily Occupation - Speak, Act, Work In Peace, As If You Were In Prayer, As Indeed You Ought To Be.

All Wars Are Civil Wars, Because All Men Are Brothers.

Listen Less To Your Own Thoughts And More To God's Thoughts.

Temptations Are A File Which Rub Off Much Of The Rust Of Our Self-confidence.

Self Confidence

Had We Not Faults Of Our Own, We Should Take Less Pleasure In Complaining Of Others.

Never Let Us Be Discouraged With Ourselves. It Is Not When We Are Conscious Of Our Faults That We Are The Most Wicked; On The Contrary, We Are Less So. We See By A Brighter Light; And Let Us Remember For Our Consolation, That We Never Perceive Our Sins Till We Begin To Cure Them.

All Wars Are Civil Ones; For It Is Still Man Spilling His Own Blood, Tearing Out His Own Bowels.

There Is No Real Elevation Of Mind In A Contempt Of Little Things; It Is, On The Contrary, From Too Narrow Views That We Consider Those Things Of Little Importance Which Have In Fact Such Extensive Consequences.

Good Taste Rejects Excessive Nicety.

When Tempted, The Shortest And Surest Way Is To Act Like A Little Child At The Breast; When We Show It A Frightful Monster, It Shrinks Back And Buries Its Face In Its Mother's Bosom, That It May No Longer Behold It.

Worry Is The Cross Which We Make For Ourselves By Over Anxiety.

How Does Our Will Become Sanctified? By Conforming Itself Unreservedly To That Of God.

If We Love Him Infinitely More Than We Do Ourselves, We Make An Unconditional Sacr Here It Is That The Spirit Teaches Us All Truth; For All Truth Is Eminently Contained In This Sacrifice Of Love, Where The Soul Strips Itself Of Every Thing To Present It To God.

Those Who Are Wholly God's Are Always Happy.

Resign Every Forbidden Joy; Restrain Every Wish That Is Not Referred To God's Will; Banish All Eager Desires, All Anxiety; Desire Only The Will Of God; Seek Him Alone And Supremely, And You Will Find Peace.

The Presence Of God Calms The Soul, And Gives It Quiet And Repose.

There Is But One Way In Which God Should Be Loved, And That Is To Take No Step Except With Him And For Him, And To Follow With A Generous Self-abandonment Every Thing Which He Requires.

The More You Say, The Less People Remember.

Self Improvement

Carefully Purify Your Conscience From Daily Faults; Suffer No Sin To Dwell In Your Heart; Small As It May Seem, It Obscures The Light Of Grace, Weighs Down The Soul, And Hinders That Constant Communion With Jesus Christ Which It Should Be Your Pleasure To Cultivate.

There Are Two Principal Points Of Attention Necessary For The Preservation Of This Constant Spirit Of Prayer Which Unites Us With God; We Must Continually Seek To Cherish It, And We Must Avoid Everything That Tends To Make Us Lose It.

There Is Never Any Peace For Those Who Resist God.

Simplicity Brings Back The Joys Of Paradise. Not That We Have Pure Pleasure Without A Moment's Suffering, But When We Are Surrendered To God, We Are Not Grasping For Pleasure, And Even Our Troubles Are Received With Thanksgiving. This Inner Harmony, And This Deliverance From Fear And The Tormenting Desires Of Self, Create A Satisfaction In The Soul Which Is Above All The Intoxicating Joys Of This World Put Together.

God Never Ceases To Speak To Us, But The Noise Of The World Without And The Tumult Of Our Passions Within Bewilder Us And Prevent Us From Listening To Him

O Lord! Take My Heart, For I Cannot Give It; And When Thou Hast It, O! Keep It, For I Cannot Keep It For Thee; And Save Me In Spite Of Myself, For Jesus Christ's Sake.

If The Crowns Of All The Kingdoms Of The Empire Were Laid Down At My Feet In Exchange For My Books And My Love Of Reading I Would Spurn Them All.

Time Spent In Prayer Is Never Wasted.

The Past But Lives In Written Words: A Thousand Ages Were Blank If Books Had Not Evoked Their Ghosts, And Kept The Pale Unbodied Shades To Warn Us From Fleshless Lips.

The Smallest Things Become Great When God Requires Them Of Us; They Are Small Only In Themselves; They Are Always Great When They Are Done For God.

To Pray Is To Desire; But It Is To Desire What God Would Have Us Desire.

I Believe That We Are Conforming To The Divine Order And The Will Of Providence When We Are Doing Even Indifferent Things That Belong To Our Condition.

I No Longer Desire Anything But To Be Thine.

There Are Some People Who Think That They Should Be Always Mourning, That They Should Put A Continual Constraint Upon Themselves, And Feel A Disgust For Those Amusements To Which They Are Obliged To Submit. For My Own Part, I Confess That I Know Not How To Conform Myself To These Rigid Notions. I Prefer Something More Simple, Which I Also Think Would Be More Pleasing To God.

We Can Often Do More For Other Men By Trying To Correct Our Own Faults Than By Trying To Correct Theirs.

How Different The Peace Of God From That Of The World! It Calms The Passions, Preserves The Purity Of The Conscience, Is Inseparable From Righteousness, Unites Us To God And Strengthens Us Against Temptations. The Peace Of The Soul Consists In An Absolute Resignation To The Will Of God.

As A General Rule, Those Truths Which We Highly Relish, And Which Shed A Degree Of Practical Light Upon The Things Which We Are Required To Give Up For God, Are Leadings Of Divine Grace, Which We Should Follow Without Hesitation.

How Desirable Is This Simplicity! Who Will Give It To Me? I Will Quit All Else; It Is The Pearl Of Great Price.

We Are Not To Choose The Manner In Which Our Blessings Shall Be Bestowed.

Even If No Command To Pray Had Existed, Our Very Weakness Would Have Suggested It.

There Is A Set Of Religious, Or Rather Moral, Writings Which Teach That Virtue Is The Certain Road To Happiness, And Vice To Misery In This World. A Very Wholesome And Comfortable Doctrine, And To Which We Have But One Objection, Namely, That It Is Not True.

When Kings Interfere In Matters Of Religion, They Enslave Instead Of Protecting It.

As Long As Anything In This World Means Anything To You, Your Freedom Is Only A Word. You Are Like A Bird That Is Held By A Leash; You Can Only Fly So Far.

True Love Goes Ever Straight Forward, Not In Its Own Strength, But Esteeming Itself As Nothing. Then Indeed We Are Truly Happy. The Cross Is No Longer A Cross When There Is No Self To Suffer Under It.

O God, The Creature Knows Not To What End Thou Hast Made Him; Teach Him, And Write In The Depths Of His Soul That The Clay Must Suffer Itself To Be Shaped At The Will Of The Potter.

God Felt, God Tasted And Enjoyed Is Indeed God, But God With Those Gifts Which Flatter The Soul, God In Darkness, In Privation, In Forsakenness, In Sensibility, Is So Much God, That He Is So To Speak God Bare And Alone. Shall We Fear This Death, Which Is To Produce In Us The True Divine Life Of Grace?

It Is When God Appears To Have Abandoned Us That We Must Abandon Ourselves Most Wholly To God.

The Gifts Of God Are Not To Be Rejected On Account Of The Channel That Brings Them.

I Would Have Every Minister Of The Gospel Address His Audience With The Zeal Of A Friend, With The Generous Energy Of A Father, And With The Exuberant Affection Of A Mother.

Preaching The Gospel

Sordid And Infamous Sensuality, The Most Dreadful Evil That Issued From The Box Of Pandora, Corrupts Every Heart, And Eradicates Every Virtue. Fly! Wherefore Dost Thou Linger? Fly, Cast Not One Look Behind Thee; Nor Let Even Thy Thought Return To The Accursed Evil For A Moment.

The Most Essential Point Is Lowliness.

Trouble And Perplexity Drive Me To Prayer, And Prayer Drives Away Perplexity And Trouble.

Peace Does Not Dwell In Outward Things But Within The Soul; We May Preserve It In The Midst Of The Bitterest Pain, If Our Will Remains Firm And Submissive. Peace In This Life Springs From Acquiescence To, Not An Exemption From, Suffering.

Nothing Is More False And More Indiscreet Than Always To Want To Choose What Mortifies Us In Everything. By This Rule A Person Would Soon Ruin His Health, His Business, His Reputation, His Relations With His Relatives And Friends, In Fact Every Good Work Which Providence Gives Him.

Relatives And Friends

I Had Often Heard Mentor Say, That The Voluptuous Were Never Brave, And I Now Found By Experience That It Was True; For The Cyprians Whose Jollity Had Been So Extravagant And Tumultuous, Now Sunk Under A Sense Of Their Danger And Wept Like Women. I Heard Nothing But The Screams Of Terror And The Wailings Of Hopeless Distress. Some Lamented The Loss Of Pleasures That Were Never To Return; But None Had Presence Of Mind Either To Undertake Or Direct The Navigation Of The Menaced Vessel.

Presence Of Mind

Wine Is The Source Of The Greatest Evils Among Communities. It Causes Diseases, Quarrels, Seditions, Idleness, Aversion To Labor, And Family Disorders. . . . It Is A Species Of Poison That Causes Madness. It Does Not Make A Man Die, But It Degrades Him Into A Brute. Men May Preserve Their Health And Vigor Without Wine; With Wine They Run The Risk Of Ruining Their Health And Losing Their Morals.

No Human Power Can Force The Intrenchments Of The Human Mind: Compulsion Never Persuades; It Only Makes Hypocrites.

Nothing Will Make Us So Charitable And Tender To The Faults Of Others, As, By Self-examination, Thoroughly To Know Our Own.

Genuine Good Taste Consists In Saying Much In Few Words, In Choosing Among Our Thoughts, In Having Order And Arrangement In What We Say, And In Speaking With Composure.

I Would Have No Desire Other Than To Accomplish Thy Will. Teach Me To Pray; Pray Thyself In Me.

The Great Point Is To Renounce Your Own Wisdom By Simplicity Of Walk, And To Be Ready To Give Up The Favor, Esteem, And Approbation Of Every One, Whenever The Path In Which God Leads You Passes That Way.

Let Gratitude For The Past Inspire Us With Trust For The Future.

It Is Not The Multitude Of Hard Duties, It Is Not The Constraint And Contention That Advance Us In Our Christian Course. On The Contrary, It Is The Yielding Of Our Wills Without Restriction And Without Choice To Tread Cheerfully Every Day In The Path In Which Providence Leads Us. It Is To Seek Nothing, To Be Discouraged By Nothing, To See Our Duty In The Present Moment, And To Trust All Else Without Reserve To The Will And Power Of God.

God Is Our True Friend, Who Always Gives Us The Counsel And Comfort We Need. Our Danger Lies In Resisting Him; So It Is Essential That We Acquire The Habit Of Hearkening To His Voice, Or Keeping Silence Within, And Listening So As To Lose Nothing Of What He Says To Us.

The Greatest Defect Of Common Education Is, That We Are In The Habit Of Putting Pleasure All On One Side, And Weariness On The Other; All Weariness In Study, All Pleasure In Idleness.

The More Perfect We Are, The More Gentle And Quiet We Become Toward The Defects Of Other People.

The Wind Of God Is Always Blowing... But You Must Hoist Your Sail.

Time Is Given Us That We May Take Care For Eternity; And Eternity Will Not Be Too Long To Regret The Loss Of Our Time If We Have Misspent It.

We Must Have Faith During The Period Of Our Grief. We Think That Our Afflictions Will Be Greater Than We Can Bear, But We Do Not Know The Strength Of Our Own Hearts, Nor The Power Of God. He Knows All. He Knows Every Folding Of The Heart And Also The Extent Of The Sorrow That He Inflicts. What We Think Will Overwhelm Us Entirely Only Subdues And Conquers Our Pride. Our Renewed Spirit Rises From Its Subjugation With A Celestial Strength And Consolation.

So Long As We Are Full Of Self We Are Shocked At The Faults Of Others. Let Us Think Often Of Our Own Sin, And We Shall Be Lenient To The Sins Of Others.

Let Me Follow In Thy Footsteps, O Jesus ! I Would Imitate Thee, But Cannot Without The Aid Of Thy Grace! O Humble And Lowly Saviour, Grant Me The Knowledge Of The True Christian, And That I May Willingly Despise Myself; Let Me Learn The Lesson So Incomprehensible To The Mind Of Man, That I Must Die To Myself By An Abandonment That Shall Produce True Humility.

We May Be Sure That It Is The Love Of God Only That Can Make Us Come Out Of Self. If His Powerful Hand Did Not Sustain Us, We Should Not Know How To Take The First Step In That Direction.

There Is No True And Constant Gentleness Without Humility. While We Are So Fond Of Ourselves, We Are Easily Offended With Others. Let Us Be Persuaded That Nothing Is Due To Us, And Then Nothing Will Disturb Us. Let Us Often Think Of Our Own Infirmities, And We Will Become Indulgent Towards Those Of Others.

Easily Offended

Do We Accustom Ourselves To See All Things In The Light Of Faith? Do We Correct All Our Judgments By It? Alas! The Greater Part Of Christians Think And Act Like Mere Heathens; If We Judge (as We Justly May) Of Their Faith By Their Practice, We Must Conclude They Have No Faith At All.

If God Bores You, Tell Him That He Bores You, That You Prefer The Vilest Amusements To His Presence, That You Only Feel At Your Ease When You Are Far From Him.

The Kingdom Of God Which Is Within Us Consists In Our Willing Whatever God Wills, Always, In Every Thing, And Without Reservation; And Thus His Kingdom Comes; For His Will Is Then Done As It Is In Heaven, Since We Will Nothing But What Is Dictated By His Sovereign Pleasure.

O Lord, I Do Most Cheerfully Commit All Unto Thee.

A Cross Borne In Simplicity, Without The Interference Of Self-love To Augment It, Is Only Half A Cross. Suffering In This Simplicity Of Love, We Are Not Only Happy In Spile Of The Cross, But Because Of It; For Love Is Pleased In Suffering For The Well Beloved, And The Cross Which Forms Us Into His Image Is A Consoling Bond Of Love.

There Is Nothing That Is More Dangerous To Your Own Salvation, More Unworthy Of God And More Harmful To Your Own Happiness, Than That You Should Be Content To Remain As You Are.

Trending Author

Christa McAuliffe

Steven Cojocaru

Category