A monk asked Abbot Poemen:  "Father, teach me the first step in the spiritual life."  The Abbot replied:  "It is written, 'I will declare my sinfulness and think of my sins.'"

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No coarseness should be allowed in conversations; for modesty and chastity are usual attributes of the intelligent even more than of virgins.  A God-loving mind is the light which illumines the soul as the sun does the body. - St. Anthony, "Test on Saintly Life"

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He who secretly slanders his neighbor, him I drove away. - Psalm 100, 5

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Learn to feel for the ills of our neighbors.  Suffer and we shall learn to endure the ills our neighbors will inflict on us. - St. John Chrysostom

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In the eye of the angry man, a mote changes into a beam. - St. Gregory the Great

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Heretics are not those who err from ignorance, but those who owe their ignorance to their indolence. In effect, heretics are not ignorant people but indolent people. - St. John Chrysostom, "Hom. 17, On 1 Tim."

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To do wrong and to repent afterwards is the next best thing to always doing right. - St. Synesius

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The prayer of a sick person is his patience and his acceptance of the sickness for the love of Jesus Christ. - St. Charles of Sezze

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The saints were so completely dead to themselves that they cared very little whether others agreed with them or not. - St. John Vianney

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Without the burden of afflictions, it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. - St. Rose of Lima

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Those who covet honor, I mean, a great name, really covet no substantial thing at all. - Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman

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The honors of this world, what are they but puff and emptiness and peril of falling? - St. Augustine

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Argument is a fishing line baited with veracity (defense of truth, self-justification, self-defense) by which we are seduced into swallowing the hook of sin. In this manner, hooked by tongue and throat, the poor soul is wont to be ravished by evil spirits. - St. Simeon

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The majority's opinion is the best option for men because it can command obedience; but the majority is always the least clever.

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Humility is the only virtue the devil cannot imitate. If pride made demons out of angels, there is no doubt humility could make angels out of demons. - St. John Climacus

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Nothing can satisfy one whom God does not satisfy. - St. Alphonsus Liguori

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He who prays most receives most. - St. Alphonsus Liguori

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There are two kinds of men (or women) who monopolize conversation. The first are those who like the sound of their own voice; the second are those who do not know what the sound of their own voice is like.

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No man can attain to the knowledge of God but by humility. The way to mount high is to descend. - Blessed Giles of Assisi

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Just as clouds hide the sun, evil thoughts becloud the mind and ruin it.

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God is an infinite circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. - St. Augustine

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Eggs warmed in the bosom hatch; unconfessed evil thoughts warmed in one's soul hatch into evil actions.

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When is a person able to testify to the souls of others? When he can testify to his own soul first.

When is he capable of correcting others? When he can correct himself first. - St. Columba

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Through humility we can attain a wisdom that cannot be learned from men and attain and possess things that cannot be attained from men. - Blessed John Ruysbroeck

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The human mind and human knowledge have always known when man is on the wrong track; but could never put man on the right track.

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Those who love money and honor fall down before the devil and adore him. - St. Anthony of Padua

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There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge of the world. - St. Teresa of Avila

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A snake can shed its old skin only if it crawls into a tight hole, and we can shed our old tendencies only if we crawl through the narrow way.

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Remembrance of death is the encouragement to zeal.

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A Christian soul who loves to argue is lost.

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Just as magnet attracts all kinds of iron dust, a man in the grip of his bad habits attracts all kinds of vices.

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The highest and noblest act of reason is to recognize that there is an infinite number of things which are beyond reason.

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A chicken cannot fly heavenward because its body is too heavy; neither can a man heavy with worldly desires  fly to  heaven.

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Love of honor is the food of anger. Good works quenches loneliness.

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A cloister will cure external pride; but only Christ can cure internal pride.

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If a man cannot bear being reviled, he will not see glory. If he is not cleansed of gall, he will not savor sweetness. - St. Barsanuphius

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Unremitting prayer is the death of loneliness.

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When we try to find out how many minutes we are advanced in faith, most often we shall discover we are eighteen years behind.

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When a group of men says, "I have the right to think the way I want," and the other group says, "I do not wish to think," then the human race has entered an era of barbarism.

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If we saw an angel, we would die of pleasure. - St. Bridget of Sweden

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A strong faith is the mother of renunciation. Lack of faith is the mother of self-indulgence.

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What the eyes have not seen and what the ears do not hear do not stir desire in the soul; so ignorance of vices is a great help to the soul.

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Winds stir the depths of the sea into a frenzy and anger stirs the soul  into madness.

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Skepticism is nothing else than a way for the human intellect to destroy itself. For the skeptic says: no one can be right; I am right about this.

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You will effect more by kind words and a courteous manner, than by anger or sharp rebuke, which should never be used but in necessity. - St. Angela Merici

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Detachment from the things perceived by the senses leads to vision of things spiritual.

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A wearer of perfume is detected, whether he wishes it or not, by the aroma around him. A carrier of God's spirit is detected in his speech and even in his lowliness.

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Silence and solitude are the foes of vainglory.

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Vain people do not see the truth when it is before them and assume things to be true when they are not, with the result that their opinions are always thoroughly wrong and unsound.

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A true Christian must act with deeper motives, think with supernatural wisdom, look with discerning eyes but talk like ordinary people.

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It is not good to have too much freedom; it is not good to have everything you need.

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Injustice is when one satisfies his concupiscence to the extent of doing wrong to others.

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The only worthy revolution is the revolution into orthodoxy, i.e. when we go against the current to remain in the true practice of our religion.

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St. Francis de Sales stated that, when he wrote, he never quoted the chapter and verses of Scripture because the learned do not need such information. 

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He who thinks himself to be something is NOTHING, and exhibits at the outset a proof of his worthlessness by such a disposition. - St. John Chrysostom

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Anger is a kind of temporary madness. - St. Basil

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Guard your tongue when your husband is angry. - St. Monica

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From excessive questioning and strife of words, nothing can be discovered. - St. John Chrysostom: Homily 17, "On I Tim."

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Turn away from that charity that is disturbed by jealousy or envy. - St. Ephraim

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Depression is when you realize that the present pleasures are false but fail to realize that absent pleasures are vain. 

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There is no sin nor wrong that gives man such a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and impatience. - St. Catherine of Sienna

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The world would have peace if the men of politics would only follow the Gospels. - St. Brigitta of Sweden

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Patient endurance is the perfection of charity. - St. Ambrose

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The state of marriage is one that requires more virtue and constancy than any other. It is a perpetual exercise in mortification. - St. Francis de Sales

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Wisdom leads us back to the innocence of childhood.

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In order to avoid discord, never contradict anyone except in case of sin or some danger to a neighbor. - St. Louis IX

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Reason, itself, is the best proof that it is insufficient in demonstrating spiritual truths.

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Just as the tree is full of leaves and the threshing floor of chaff, so is the world full of unbelievers ruled by Satan. - St. Augustine

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The world has lived with women in it for a good many centuries now; and the FAITHFUL WIFE and LOVING MOTHER is the first and greatest among women. - Tertullian

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God loves those who, for His sake, firstly, rid themselves of possessions, secondly, rid themselves of friends and thirdly, rid themselves of self. 

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Souls rise more to spiritual things the more they die to fleshly things. - St. Augustine

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There are two contemplatives in this world. The Catholic contemplative who is contemplating SOMEONE and the other contemplatives who are contemplating NO ONE. - G. K. Chesterton

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In times of trials, sorrow and sufferings, science will not console you if you are ignorant of morality. But knowledge of morality will console you even if you are deficient in your knowledge of science. 

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Can any sin be called light, since every sin involves some contempt of God? - St. Eucherius

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There are three states of the soul -- ignorance, opinion and knowledge. Those who are in ignorance are the pagans, those in knowledge are the true Christians, and those in opinion are the heretics. - Clement of Alexandria

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Selfishness is a passion whose object is the body. - St. Maximus

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Holy people do good not to be seen but so that God may be revealed through these works. - St. Augustine

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To sin is human, but to persist in sin is devilish. - St. Catherine of Sienna

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The perfect person's every action is a testimony to Christ Jesus and that abstinence from every sin is a denial of self leading to Christ. - Origen

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It is human to fall, but angelic to rise again. - St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

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Ambition is the mother of hypocrisy and prefers to sulk in corners and dark places. It cannot endure the light of day. It is an unclean vice wallowing in the depths, always hidden, but ever with an eye to advancement. - St. Bernard

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There is no such thing as bad weather. All weather is good because it is God's. - St. Teresa of Avila

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Receive all the accidents that befall you as good, knowing that nothing happens without God.

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Nothing will so avail to divide the Church as love for power. - St. John Chrysostom

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At the end-times, many people and nations will develop an identical way of thinking and, with great happiness, will pronounce the Antichrist as king. - St. Ephraim

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He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother. - St. Cyprian

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He who complains and murmurs is not even a good Christian. - St. John of the Cross

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Christians are not born but made. - St. Jerome

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Judas was one of the first Christians; in fact, he was one of Christ's chosen few who put his hand in the same dish. So he was a genuine traitor. Because a traitor is always first a friend; otherwise he could never be a foe. - G. K. Chesterton

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Unswerving hope is the gateway to detachment. No hope is the floodgates of attachments.

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It is an accepted fact in the modern world that the Catholic Church has the monopoly on REASON.  Nothing, except Rome, defends the reliability of Reason. - G. K. Chesterton

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Faith and withdrawal from the world are the enemies of avarice.

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Be thine own accuser and God will be thine indulger. - St. Bernard 

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Since man lost his true good in the garden of Eden, in a sickening delusion he finds it in anything, even in his own destruction, even in things contrary to God, to reason or to nature. 

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Everything which is done perishes if it is not anxiously preserved in humility. - St. Gregory the Great

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Self-criticism begets obedience to Christ's commands and the longing for spiritual health. 

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The fear of death is a sign that one is not following Christ. - St. Cyprian

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Men do not fear a powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary. - St. Bonaventure

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Just as goats destroy every green thing around, humility destroys all vices of the soul. 

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Fire does not give birth to snow and seeking honor does not lead those seeking it to heaven. 

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Anger is a kind of temporary insanity. - St. Basil

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Self-control is the mother of health. The mother of self-control is the thought of death.

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One spark has often set fire to a great forest, and it has been found that one good deed done well wipes away a multitude of sins. 

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One and the same trial or affliction purifies and sanctifies the good while destroying and casting out the bad. - St. Augustine

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Prevention of birth is premature murder. - Tertullian

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FASTING in respect to food is of no benefit to those who fail to fast with all their senses; for whosoever is successfully waging his battle must be temperate in all things. - St. Isidore of Seville

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For whether it goes well with you or whether it goes ill, yet His will is going to be done in you. I pray that it be done also by you. - St. Augustine

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One will possess the Holy Spirit only in proportion to his reverence for and adhesion to the Church of Christ. - St. Augustine

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Hospitality is like the Sandal Tree that imparts its fragrance even to the ax that cuts it down.

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He who does not have the Church as his mother cannot have God for his Father. - St. Cyprian

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The world is God's; but the worldly is the devil's. - Tertullian

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Those who please the world most, please Christ least. - St. Jerome

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St. Jerome said: "Whoever has received his share of trouble in this life, after death will not have to suffer the tribulations he had suffered already. God's anger is worst when God does not show he is angry; like the doctor who stops treating you because he has given up hope of curing you."

Mary is so beautiful that to see her again one would be willing to die. -St. Bernadette Soubirous

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St. Francis de Sales, that great saint, would leave off writing, with the letter of a word half-formed in order to reply to an interruption.-St. John Vianney

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St. Augustine said: “The world’s joy is vanity. We long for it to come but when it has come we fail to hold on to it.”

Christ is the only one true reformer. He alone said “Blessed is the Poor,” in a world that thinks that it is cursed to be poor.