Saint Teresa of Avila Quotes

"We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us."

"For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God."

"Be gentle to all and stern with yourself."

"More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones."

"There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers."

"To have courage for whatever comes in life - everything lies in that."

"Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love."

"I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him."

"I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible."

"In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree."

"Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul."

"I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions."

"Do you think it is only a little thing to possess a house from which lovely things can be seen?"

"To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience."

"I am more afraid of those who are terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself."

"Discontent with this world gives such a painful longing to quit it that, if the heart finds comfort, it is solely from the thought that God wishes it to remain here in banishment."

"May God protect me from gloomy saints."

"The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too."

"Don't let your sins turn into bad habits."

"It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found - not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater."

"All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted."

"The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit."

"I had a father and mother, who were devout and feared God. Our Lord also helped me with His grace. All this would have been enough to make me good, if I had not been so wicked."

"Anyone who truly loves God travels securely."

"Pain is never permanent."

"Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds."

"God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher."

"If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend."

"It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature nor our origin."

"Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions - which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives."