Salesian Spirituality Final Quotes

"Our will is never so free as when it is a slave to God's will; just as it is never so enslaved as when it serves its own will."

St. Francis de Sales

"We have freedom to do good or evil; yet to make choice of evil, is not to use, but to abuse our freedom."

St. Francis de Sales

"We are free to choose our actions...but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions."

Stephen R. Covery

"Before you give people unlimited freedom to do what they please, you had best find out what it will please them to do."

Edmund Burke

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Thomas Jefferson

"To be truly free is our life's work."

P Fransen

"Nobody's free until everybody's free."

Frannie Lou Hamer

"Indeed, choice is essential for a fully realized life because it is through choices that we make decisions about what we do and who we are."

unmistakeable impact

"Freedom is from God and for God."

J. Sachs

"Freedom is the capacity for love and finds its only true fulfillment in love."

J. Sachs

"No man is free who is a slave to the flesh."

Seneca the Young

"Expresses our basic attitude toward self, others, and God and it informs subsequent particular decision we make."

J. Sachs

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

Robert Browning

"In heaven our freedom will be converted into love and love into freedom."

Treatise on the Love of God

"My brothers and sisters - There are two kinds of land mines in this world: The Interior and the Exterior. We must first learn to control the Interior before we can hope to control the Exterior."

Preah Maha Ghosanands

"Wars of the heart always take longer to cool than the barrel of a gun."

Preah Maha Ghosanands

"Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if you whole world seems upset."

St. Francis de Sales

"Nothing is worth losing your inner peace. Take action as circumstances require, but never surrender your inner peace. Stop. Breath deeply. Close your eyes and breathe deeply again. Then, and only then, take action - from a peaceful heart."

Jonathan Lockwood

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

Mother Teresa

"Happiness cannot be far behind a grateful heart and a peaceful mind."

"Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily."

St. Francis de Sales

"Do not forward in fear to the changes in life; rather, look to them with full hope that as they arise, God, whose very own you are, will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand it, God will carry you in His arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same understanding Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and every day. He will either shield you from suffering or will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations."

St. Francis de Sales

"An accord on a human things accompanied by benevolence and affection."

Cicero

"Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless."

Mortimer J. Alder

"Love everyone with a deep love based on charity, but form friendships only with those who can share virtuous things with you. The higher the virtues you share and exchange with others, the more perfect your friendships will be."

St. Francis de Sales

"React to rudeness with kindness and compassion. Don't treat people like they treat you. Treat people like God treats you."

Dave Willis

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about."

Wendy Mass

"Friendship requires great communication."

St. Francis de Sales

"Friends pick us up when we fall down, and if they can't pick us up, they lie down and listen for awhile."

Calvin and Hobbes

"Friendship is the sun of life...the best gift which the immortal gods have given us with the exception of wisdom."

Cicero

"Friendship matters because it is only through love that we live."

Paul Waddell

"Love causes us to be like the one we love."

St. Francis de Sales

"Everyone has enough bad inclinations of his own without burdening himself with another's. A friend who would leave us into sin has become our enemy."

St. Francis de Sales

"Love everyone with a deep love based on charity...but form friendships only with those who can share virtuous things with you. The higher the virtues you share and exchange with others, the more perfect your friendship will be."

St. Francis de Sales

"When the heart speaks, love listens."

Robert Hensel

"Friendship obliges us to help each other to be freed of every imperfection. We must, therefore, patiently and gently bear with our friend's imperfections, but not encourage them, much less adopt them."

St. Francis de Sales

"Truly it is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in Heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to endure for ever there."

St. Francis de Sales

"If not love forever, then what's forever for?"

Michael Martin Murphey

"The friendships that were good in this life will continue eternally in the next."

St. Francis de Sales

"It is not wrong to be happy. But it is wrong to be happy all alone."

Albert Camus

"Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs."

St. Francis de Sales

"We must fear God of our love, not love Him out of fear."

St. Francis de Sales

"Work hard every day at increasing your purity of heart, which consists in appraising things and weighing them in the balance of God's will."

St. Francis de Sales

"Love is the movement, effussion and advancement of the heart toward the good."

St. Francis de Sales

"If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently...and even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed."

St. Francis de Sales

"We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear. Let us take breath, and go on afresh."

St. Francis de Sales

"I have made a pact with my tongue, not to speak when my heart is disturbed."

St. Francis de Sales

"Cordial love of the neighbor does not consist in feelings. This love flows not from a heart of flesh. but from the heart of our will."

Jane de Chantal

"When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of his Presence."

St. Francis de Sales

"Suffering borne...quietly and patiently, is a continual, very powerful prayer, before God."

Jane de Chantal

"Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to him. That is all the doing you have to worry about."

Jane de Chantal

"Following your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently, and simply, as your heart dictactes."

Jane de Chantal

"All God wants is our heart."

Jane de Chantal

"Peace of heart is what you seek for and that is found in the remembrance of Allah."

"The empty shell deep down in your heart can never be satisfied until you fill it with the love and remembrance of Allah."

"As our beloved Jesus lives in your heart, so, too, he will live in your conduct and he will be revealed by you eyes, mouth, hands, yes, even the hair on your head."

St. Francis de Sales

"Work hard every day at increasing your purity of heart, which consists in appraising things and weighing them in the balance of God's will."

St. Francis de Sales

"If I only want pure water, what does it matter to me whether it be brought in a vase of gold or of glass? What is it to me whether the will of God be presented to me in tribulation or consolation, since I desire and seek only the Divine Will?"

St. Francis de Sales

"Hell is full of good intentions and wills."

St. Francis de Sales

"We have freedom to do good or evil; yet to make choice evil, is not to use, but to abuse our freedom."

St. Francis de Sales

"The test of a preacher is that his congrgation saying not 'what a lovely sermon,' but, 'I will do something!'"

St. Francis de Sales

"For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Philippians 2:13

"For good is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him."

Philippians 2:13

"Thy will, not mine be done."

"Fina Allah and happiness wil find you."

"Desire is at the root of all true spiritual life - but also the cause of its debasement."

St. Francis de Sales

"God is never late. He is preparing something greater than you can imagine if you give it to Lord, trust Him with it completely. Trust God's 'no' just as much as his 'yes.' Both are for you good. God's plan is worth the wait, so keep trusting even when the answer is 'not yet'."

"Let us think only of spending the present day well. Then, when tomorrow shall have come, it will be called today, and then, we will think about it."

St. Francis de Sales

"Man is the perfection of the universe. The mind is the perfection of the man. Love is the perfection of the mind, and charity is the perfection of love."

"We are made for Thee O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."

"Presume not, therefore thy God to scan; the proper study of mankind is man."

A. Pope

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness; nothing is so gentle as true strength."

"Because we are all made in the image and likeness of God, we are therefore all made in the image and likeness of one another."

St. Francis de Sales

"We are not all called to do great things in life. But if we do small things with great love, we change the world."

Mother Theresa

"There is nothing small in the service of God."

St. Francis de Sales

"If you do what you do only with great love, some day the poor may come to forgive you the good that you do for them."

St. Vincent de Paul

"Be where your feet are."

Clifton Crosby

"I have experienced may terrible things in my life - a few of which actually happened."

Mark Twain

"Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul, except sin. God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry."

St. Francis de Sales

"We should dedicate every moment, every desire, every thought and act, every power and impulse of our soul to God and His love."

St. Francis de Sales

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not loose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew."

St. Francis de Sales

"Every moment comes to us pregnant with a command from God, only to pass on and plunge into eternity, there to remain forever what we have made of it."

St. Francis de Sales