There are many who want me to tell them of secret ways of becoming perfect and I can only tell them that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that love is by loving. You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working;… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share
One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings,… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
The highest point of humility consists in not merely acknowledging one's abjection, but in taking pleasure therein, not from any want of… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
Be neat, Philothea; let nothing be negligent about you. It is a kind of contempt of those with whom we converse, to… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
If I want only pure water, what does it matter to me whether it be brought in a vase of gold or… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
Let us be what God likes, so long as we are His, and let us not be what we want to be,… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
Flowers often grow more beautifully on dung-hills than in gardens that look beautifully kept. — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
The thoughts of those moved by natural human love are almost completely fastened on the beloved, their hearts are filled with passion for it,… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
It matters little how one begins, provided that he be resolved to go on well, and to end well. — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
Those who love to be feared fear to be loved, and they themselves are more afraid than anyone, for whereas other men fear only… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
Go to your confessor; open your heart to him; display to him all the recesses of your soul; take the advice that he will… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
It is better to remain silent than to speak the truth ill-humoredly, and spoil an excellent dish by covering it with bad sauce. — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
Friendships begun in this world will be taken up again, never to be broken off. — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
And when children begin to use their reason, fathers and mothers should take great pains to fill their hearts with the fear of God. This the good Queen Blanche did most earnestly by St. Louis, her son: witness her oft-repeated words, "My son, I would sooner see you die than guilty of a mortal sin;" words which sank so deeply… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share
To be pleased at correction and reproofs shows that one loves the virtues which are contrary to those faults for which he is corrected… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
If you would fall into any extreme, let it be on the side of gentleness. The human mind is so constructed that it resists… — Saint Francis de Sales Copy Share Image
