Top 231 Quotes & Sayings by Teresa of Avila - Page 2

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

Never do anything which you could not do in the sight of all.

Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal.

Be kind to all and severe to thyself.

The saints rejoiced at injuries and persecutions, because in forgiving them they had something to present to God when they prayed to Him.

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

Never affirm anything unless you are sure it is true.

May nothing wind you up, nothing affright you; everything comes and goes. God, still, just there; through patience all will be achieved. If you have God, you lack nothing: God alone will do.

It is impossible for human tongue to exaggerate the riches which a vision from God brings to the soul: it even bestows health and refreshment on the body.

I made you, dear, and all I make is perfect. Please come close, for I desire you.

If we learn to love the earth, we will find labyrinths, gardens, fountains and precious jewels! A whole new world will open itself to us. We will discover what it means to be truly alive.

Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.

True love grows by sacrifice and the more thoroughly the soul rejects natural satisfaction the stronger and more detached its tenderness becomes.

From moment to moment one can bear much.

Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with His sign, which is the sign of the Cross, in token that they have given Him their freedom.

Love draws forth love.

In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give Him thanks.

The best thing must be to flee from all to the All.

Consider seriously how quickly people change, and how little trust is to be had in them; and hold fast to God, Who does not change.

True perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbour, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be.

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

Let nothing disturb you, / Nothing dismay you; / All things are passing: / God never changes.

It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not always be the same.

Don't be curious of matters that don't concern you; never speak of them, and don't ask about them.

How is it that we do not die of love in seeing that God Himself could do no more than shed His divine blood for us drop by drop? When as man He was preparing for death, He made Himself our food in order to give us life. God becomes food, bread for his creatures. Is this not enough to make us die of love?

Granting that we are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense; for they, as it were, see that He is looking upon them, while others may go for days on end without even once recollecting that God sees them.

I am afraid that if we begin to put our trust in human help, some of our Divine help will fail us.

If we plant a flower or a shrub and water it daily it will grow so tall that in time we shall need a spade and a hoe to uproot it. It is just so, I think, when we commit a fault, however small, each day, and do not cure ourselves of it.

From heaven even the most miserable life will look like one bad night at an inconvenient hotel.

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

Those who in fact risk all for God will find that they have both lost all and gained all.

[Last words:] My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another.

God deliver me from people who are so spiritual that they want to turn everything into perfect contemplation, come what may.

Union is as if in a room there were two large windows through which the light streamed in; it enters in different places but it all becomes one.

Oh, my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value.

Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer-however much the lips may move.

It is of great importance, when we begin to practise prayer, not to let ourselves be frightened by our own thoughts.

One always goes on as one begins.

Much more is accomplished by a single word of the Our Father said, now and then, from our heart, than by the whole prayer repeated many times in haste and without attention.

Whenever conscience commands anything, there is only one thing to fear, and that is fear.

Christ moves along the pots and pans.

Let us consider what the glorious Virgin endured, and what the holy apostles suffered, and we shall find that they who were nearest to Jesus Christ were the most afflicted.

All times are dangerous times.

Her heart is full of joy with love, for in the Lord her mind is stilled. She has renounced every selfish attachment and draws abiding joy and strength from the One within. She lives not for herself, but lives to serve the Lord of Love in all, and swims across the sea of life breasting its rough waves joyfully.

It should be observed that perfect love of God consists not in those delights, tears and sentiments of devotion that we generally seek, but in a strong determination and keen desire to please God in all things, and to promote His glory.

Those seeking the life of the spirit should be cheerful and free, and not neglect recreation. Married people must act in conformity with their vocation--but their progress will of necessity be but the pace of a hen.

Humility must always be doing its work like a bee making honey in the hive: without humility all will be lost.

If you fall sometimes, you must not be discouraged.

The soul of the just man is but a paradise, in which, God tells us, He takes His delight. What do you imagine, must that dwelling be in which a King so mighty, so wise, and so pure, containing in Himself all good, can delight to rest? Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He told us, He created us in his own image and likeness.

Happy the heart where love has come to birth.

May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds.

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

Mental prayer is nothing else but being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him.

Love turns work into rest.

We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble.

He who has God finds he is lacking nothing.

Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee; All things pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for.

As God's beloved, I live in the bliss knowing that my soul is never separated from Him, for I learn to know Her in all that I see. God dissolved my mind-my separation. I cannot describe now my intimacy with Him.

All things pass... Patience attains all it strives for.

For, as I said a little way back, perfect souls are in no way repelled by trials, but rather desire them and pray for them and love them. They are like soldiers: the more wars there are, the better they are pleased, because they hope to emerge from them with the greater riches.