Top 159 Quotes & Sayings by Thérèse of Lisieux

Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers, and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.

I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth, and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all.

I understood that the Church had a Heart, and that this Heart was burning with love.

I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately, when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by.

The world's thy ship and not thy home.

It is my weakness that gives me all my strength.

My vocation, at last I have found it; my vocation is love.

A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.

Life is only a dream: soon, we shall awaken. And what joy! The greater our sufferings, the more limitless our glory. Oh! do not let us waste the trial Jesus sends.

Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.

I am very far from practicing what I understand.

Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.

Sufferings gladly borne for others convert more people than sermons.

Do not fear to tell Jesus that you love Him even without feeling it. That is the way to force Jesus to help you, to carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.

Love is the Cross, and the Cross is Love.

Above the clouds the sky is always blue.

Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you- for you alone? He burns with the desire to come into your heart... don't listen to the demon, laugh at him, and go without fear to receive the Jesus of peace and love.

Whose hands are God's hands, but our hands?

Trying to do good to people without God's help is no easier than making the sun shine at midnight. You discover that you've got to abandon all your own preferences, your own bright ideas, and guide souls along the road our Lord has marked out for them. You mustn't coerce them into some path of your own choosing.

I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden.

Much later, when I understood what perfection was, I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself. I understood that there were many kinds of of sanctity and that each soul was free to respond to the approaches of Our Lord and to do little or much for Him - in other words,to make a choice among the sacrifices He demands.

Silence does good to the soul.

Let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else.

God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized; so in spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.

Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person.

If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs - everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events - to the heart that loves, all is well.

Love needs to be proved by action.

Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe.

I felt it better to speak to God than about Him.

Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity.

The loveliest materpiece of the heart of God is the love of a Mother.

You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.

As the sun shines both on the cedar and the smallest flower, so the Divine sun illumines each soul.

How happy I am to see myself as imperfect and to be in need of God's mercy.

Apart from the Office [the daily prayer of the Church] which is a daily joy, I do not have the courage to search through books for beautiful prayers. ... Unable either to say them all or to choose between them, I do as a child would who cannot read - I just say what I want to say to God, quite simply, and he never fails to understand.

Holiness is a disposition of the heart that makes us humble and little in the arms of God, aware of our weakness, and confident - in the most audacious way - in His Fatherly goodness.

Prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trail as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.

If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient, but I only look at the present, I forget the past, and I take good care not to forestall the future.

Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.

Love consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender.

Prayer and sacrifice can touch souls better than words.

Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.

Perfect love means putting up with other peoples shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them.

You know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.

Suffering is the very best gift He has to give us. He gives it only to His chosen friends.

When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens,I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.

Love is a universe of its own, comprising all time and space.

Why should we defend ourselves when we are misunderstood and misjudged? Let us leave that aside. Let us not say anything. It is so sweet to let others judge us in any way they like. O blessed silence, which gives so much peace to the soul!

For me, prayer is an upward leap of the heart, an untroubled glance towards heaven, a cry of gratitude and love which I utter from the depths of sorrow as well as from the heights of joy.

Trials help us detach ourselves from the earth; they make us look higher than this world.

Discouragement itself is a form of pride.

Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.

Nothing's done well when it's done out of self-interest.

The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place.

When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future.

In trial or difficulty I have recourse to Mother Mary, whose glance alone is enough to dissipate every fear.

When one loves, one does not calculate.

He does not call those who are worthy, but those whom He wills.