Favorite Quotations
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"We come back to the primary Truth, that what is right with the world has nothing to do with future changes, but is rooted in original realities." "The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of this age.""The disintegration of rational society started in the drift from the hearth and the family; the solution must be a drift back.” "These are the days when a Christian is
expected to praise every creed except his own." "... I will whisper in the reader's ear a
horrible suspicion that has sometimes haunted me:
the suspicion that Hudge and Gudge (big
government and big business) are secretly in
partnership. That the quarrel they keep up in public
is very much of a put-up job, and that the way in
which they perpetually play into each other's hands
is not an everlasting coincidence." "The coming peril is the intellectual,
educational, psychological and artistic
overproduction, which, equally with economic
overproduction, threatens the wellbeing of
contemporary civilisation. People are inundated,
blinded, deafened, and mentally paralysed by a flood
of vulgar and tasteless externals, leaving them no
time for leisure, thought, or creation from within
themselves." |
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"... A
lying mouth destroys the soul."
Wisdom 1:11
"Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent."
"God
desires the smallest degree of purity of conscience <integrity> in you more than all the
works you can perform."
St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church,
Writer, Reformer. Patron Saint of Mystical Theology,
Contemplatives, and Contemplative Life
"Human life - your life - and its humdrum,
ordinary business, have a meaning which is divine, which
belongs to eternity.”
St Josemaria Escriva (1902-1975)
Priest, Mystic, Founder of Priestly Society of the Holy Cross,
Opus Dei
"People hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is they love more than the truth. They love truth when it shines warmly on them, and hate it when it rebukes them."
"If you
are suffering from a bad man's injustice, forgive him—lest
there be two bad men."
St. Augustine (354-430)
Doctor of the Church, Writer, Philosopher, Patron Saint of
Printers and Theologians
“No matter how skilled one may be in business
or medicine or science or law or athletics, if the mind does
not thrill in truth, and if the heart is not intertwined in an
eternal embrace, there can be no realistic fulfillment. In the
sanjuanist formulation (St John of the Cross), “outside of God
everything is narrow”.
Fr. Thomas Dubay (Fire Within) (1921-2010)
Catholic Priest, Retreat Master, Author, Doctorate in
Education
"Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates
God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful
delight in God, who is love."
Juliana of Norwich (1342-1423)
Mystic, Visionary, Author
"Moral judgment must condemn the plague of
totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth,
exercise political control of opinion through the media,
manipulate defendants and witnesses at public trials, and
imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and
repressing everything they consider "thought crimes.""
Catechism of
the Catholic Church Part Three, Section Two, Chapter Two,
Article Eight (Eighth Commandment, 2499)
"Give me grace, O my Father, to
be utterly ashamed of my own reluctance! Rouse me from
sloth and coldness, and make me desire Thee with my whole
heart. Teach me to love meditation, sacred reading, and
prayer. Teach me to love that which must engage my mind
for all eternity."
"For it is our plain duty to preach and defend the truth
in a straightforward way. Those who are to stumble must
stumble, rather than the heirs of grace should not hear.
While we offend and alienate one man, we secure another;
if we drive one man further the wrong way, we drive
another further the right way. The cause of truth, the
heavenly company of saints, gains on the whole more in one
way than in the other."
Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Catholic Convert, Cardinal, Writer (Theology and Apologetics),
Philosopher, Scholar
"The Lord manifests Himself to those who
stop for some time in peace and humility of heart. If you look
in murky and turbulent waters, you cannot see the reflection
of your face. If you want to see the face of Christ, stop and
collect your thoughts in silence, and close the door of your
soul to the noise of external things."
St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
Priest, Preacher, Teacher, Patron Saint of the elderly,
pregnant women, amputees, poor people, fisherman, mariners,
lost articles, against barrenness, against starvation.
"We are all sinners. We have all turned
away from the Lord, but the Lord is always ready to take us
back. When we sin we hurt ourselves, we break our own hearts.
The Father sends His Holy Spirit into our hearts to bring us
forgiveness and to heal whatever damage we have done to
ourselves."
Rev.
Jude Winkler, OFM Franciscan
Priest, Author
"By all the criteria of modern molecular
biology, life is present from the moment of conception."
Dr. Hymie Gordon Chairman,
Department of Genetics at Mayo Clinic, Testimony to Senate
Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, April 23, 1981.
"A person's first right to
emigrate is from inside the womb to outside the womb. Let's hear an outcry
demanding the right of all people to cross that border freely,
and to protect and welcome those who do cross it. The freedom
to be immigrants across the border of the womb is absolute and
foundational, and all other rights depend on that one."
Fr. Frank Pavone,
National Director of Priests for Life
"You
shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill one who has
been born."
The
Didache [The Teaching Of The Twelve Apostles] c.
80-140 A.D.
"If, then, we wish to
persevere and to be saved—for no one can be saved without
perseverance—we must pray continually. Our perseverance
depends, not on one grace, but on a thousand helps which we
hope to obtain from God during our whole lives, that we may be
preserved in his grace. Now, to this chain of graces a chain
of prayers on our part must correspond: without these prayers,
God ordinarily does not grant his graces. If we neglect to
pray, and thus break the chain of prayers, the chain of graces
shall also be broken, and we shall lose the grace of
perseverance."
"He who trusts himself is
lost. He who trusts God can do all things."
St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
Doctor of the Church, Writer, Patron Saint of Theologians,
Vocations, and Final Perseverance
"You
shall not kill the child by obtaining an abortion.
Nor, again, shall you destroy him after he is
born."
St. Barnabas
(? - 61) Jewish Convert, Apostle and companion of St Paul,
Martyr; Patron Saint against hailstorms, invoked as
Peacemaker
St. Basil the Great (330-379) Doctor of the Church, Theologian, Writer, Considered a Father of Monasticism, Patron Saint of Hospital Administrators, Monks, Reformers
"To destroy the fetus 'is something worse
than murder.' The one who does this 'does not take away life
that has already been born, but prevents it from being born.'"
St John Chrysostom
(347-407) "Homilies
on Romans". Greek Father and Doctor of the Church;
Orator; Reformer; Patriarch of Constantinople; Patron Saint of
Speakers, Lecturers, Orators, Epileptics
"You must make a sound and
firm resolution to submit yourselves totally to His will and,
with a lively and steadfast faith, to receive from Him what
you have to do for love of Him. And in this (whatever may
happen) to persevere with constancy to the very end."
"And above all, be on your
guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God
has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but
only proposes, invites and counsels."
St. Angela Merici (1474-1540)
Founder of Ursuline Sisters; body incorrupt; Patron Saint
against illness, for disabled people
"Dismiss all anger and look
into yourself a little. Remember that he of whom you are
speaking is your brother, and as he is in the way of
salvation, God can make him a saint, in spite of his present
weakness."
St. Thomas of Villanova (1488-1555)
Professor of Arts, Logic and Philosophy, Augustinian,
Archbishop
"Free your mind from all that troubles you; God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this (choice) without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires."
"We should take as a maxim
never to be surprised at current difficulties, no more than at
a passing breeze, because with a little patience we shall see
them disappear. Time changes everything."
St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)
Priest,
Founder of organization to help the poor, sick, unemployed;
sold into slavery by Turkish pirates, but freed when he
converted a captor to Christianity; body is incorrupt; Patron
Saint of charities, hospitals, prisoners, St Vincent de Paul
Charities, volunteers, spiritual help.
"Humor is a gift that Christians should be filled with. You must laugh at yourself so you are able to take your neighbors faults with a grain of salt. Give him the privilege of being imperfect - just like you, sweetheart."
"His love extends to every
cross, every joy, every moment of our existence. There is
nothing that escapes His Eye, and He permits nothing to happen
to us that does not have some hidden good within it."
Mother Angelica (1923-2016)
Religious Sister, Abbess, Foundress of EWTN and Our Lady of
the Angels Monestary (Irondale, AL)
"While those who give scandal
are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder, those who
take scandal -- who allow scandals to destroy their faith --
are guilty of spiritual suicide."
St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of the Church, Patron Saint of Confessors, Authors, and
Educators
(To give scandal - to lead others
into sin by one's bad example. (Mt. 18:6))
“Learning
that flowered in days of yore ... In these our times is
thought a bore.
Once knowledge was a well to drink of; Now having fun is all
men think of.”
St. Thomas Becket (quote included in the historical
biography about Becket "Warrior, Priest, Rebel" by author
John Guy)
"It is
dangerous for men in power if no one dares to tell them when
they go wrong.”
St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170)
Civil
and Canon Lawyer, Soldier/Officer, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Martyr (murdered by king's supporters); Patron Saint of
Clergy, Secular Clergy
"We must
stand up for the rights of our neighbour who is suffering
from injustice; we must defend them all the more vigorously
because we see Jesus present in them. Surely this is our
duty because of our love for others for his sake. We have no
right to be 'sleeping watchmen' or dumb watch-dogs. Whenever
we see evil we must sound the alarm."
Blessed Charles de
Foucauld (1858-1916) Priest,
Author, Translator, Abolitionist (sought freedom for slaves in
Africa)
"We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God… to be alone with Him — not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything — to dwell lovingly in His presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless. We cannot find God in noise or agitation."
"If we were humble, nothing would change us -
neither praise nor discouragement."
"If someone were to criticize us, we would not feel
discouraged. If someone would praise us, we also would not
feel proud."
St Teresa of
Calcutta (1910-1997) Religious Sister,
Missionary, Teacher, Writer
“Evil
is ancient, unchanging, and with us always. The more
postmodern the West becomes — affluent, leisured, nursed on
moral equivalence, utopian pacifism, and multicultural
relativism — the more premodern the evil among us seems to
arise in nihilistic response.”
"There is
one great difference ... between the medieval and modern
worlds.
People living in medieval times believed in transcendence
and a soul, and sought to keep alive culture until
civilization returned.
People living in modern times increasingly live for their
appetites without worry about what follows — with little
awareness of what has been lost and so not a clue about how
to recapture it."
Victor
Davis Hanson Professor, Historian, Author, Ph.D. in
Classics (Stanford University)
"Criminals
who disobey other laws are not likely to be stopped by gun
control laws. What such laws actually do is increase the
number of disarmed and defenseless victims.
... Mass shootings are often used as examples of a need
for gun control. But what puts a stop to mass shootings?
Usually the arrival on the scene of somebody else with a
gun."
Thomas Sowell (1930-
) Senior Fellow at Hoover Institute (Stanford, CA), Professor,
Author, Doctorate in Economics (University of Chicago)
"To fall in love with God is
the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to
find Him, the greatest human achievement."
"If you believe what you like in the
gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel
you believe, but yourself."
"In this life, virtue consists
of loving what must be loved. Knowing how to choose it is
prudence, not letting oneself be distracted by seductive
powers is temperance, not letting oneself be led astray by
pride is justice."
"If God seems slow in responding, it is
because He is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us.
God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to
have a lively desire for His greatest gifts. All of which is
to say, pray always and do not lose heart."
St. Augustine (354-430) Doctor of the
Church, Writer, Philosopher, Patron Saint of Printers and
Theologians
"Men do not
fear a powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the
name and protection of Mary."
"Since
happiness is nothing other than the enjoyment of the highest
good, and since the highest good is above, no one can be happy
unless he rises above himself, not by an ascent of the body,
but of the heart."
St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) Doctor of the
Church, Writer, Philosopher, Doctor of Theology, Patron
against Intestinal Problems.
"No act is
charitable if it is not just."
St. Bruno (1030-1101) Founder of the
Carthusian Order, Educator, Patron Saint of Possessed Persons
"Don't let your sins turn into bad habits."
"Be who God meant you to be and you will
set the world on fire!"
Saint Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582) Mystical Writer, Doctor of the Church, Incorrupt,
Patron Saint of People in Religious Orders and of People
Ridiculed For Their Piety, Against Bodily Ills
Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), Historian, Poet, Orator, and Writer
“The final aim and reason of all music is
nothing other than the glorification of God and the
refreshment of the spirit.”
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Composer of 1,100+ Pieces of Music, Husband and Father of
Twenty Children
"There are those who seek knowledge to be known
by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge
in order to serve; that is Love. The three most important
virtues are humility, humility, and humility. God will either
give us what we ask, or what He knows to be better for us."
“Inordinate love for the flesh is cruelty,
because under the appearance of pleasing the body, we kill the
soul.”
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) Doctor
of the Church, Patron Saint of Beekeepers, Bees, Candlemakers,
Cistercian Order
"Only he will receive, will find, and will
enter who perseveres in asking, seeking and knocking."
St Louis Marie de Montfort (1673
- 1716) Author, Founder of the Congregation of the Daughters
of Divine Wisdom; Patron Saint of Preachers
"Many believe - and I believe - that I
have been designated for this work by God. In spite of my old
age, I do not want to give it up; I work out of love for God
and I put all my hope in Him."
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
Italian Sculptor, Painter, and Architect
"Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life."
"O sinner, be not discouraged, but have
recourse to Mary in all your necessities. Call her to your
assistance, for such is the divine Will that she should help
in every kind of necessity."
St. Basil the Great (330-379) Doctor of
the Church, Theologian, Writer, Considered a Father of
Monasticism, Patron Saint of Hospital Administrators, Monks,
Reformers
"The most deadly poison of our times is indifference."
"Be a Catholic: When you kneel before an
altar, do it in such a way that others may be able to
recognize that you know before whom you kneel."
St. Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941)
Catholic priest who was imprisoned at Aushcwitz concentration
camp, then starved
and poisoned by the Nazis.(National Socialist German
Workers' Party)
"To use this life well is the pathway
through death to everlasting life."
St. John Almond (1577-1612) Executed in
England for being a Catholic Priest (Martyrdom, Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales)
