Inspiration

Sometimes I come across a quote or saying that really stops and makes me think.  Perhaps one or two of these will touch your heart and mind as well.



"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed." ~ G.K. Chesterton
"Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it." ~ Flannery O'Connor, speaking about the Eucharist
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." ~ Plato

"He is evil, he's not like mist.  He's not a diffuse thing, he is a person.  I'm convinced that one must never converse with Satan--if you do that, you'll be lost." ~ Pope Francis


"If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." ~ St. Mother Teresa


"Rather than willfully violate the known will of God, I would forfeit my life." ~ General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson


"Without God's blessing ... I look to no success." ~ General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

"Misfortune borne nobly is good fortune." ~ General Robert E. Lee

"On matters of taste I will sway, but on matters of principle I stay firm." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"The chameleon, when he lies on the grass to catch flies and grasshoppers, takes upon him the color of the grass...In like manner, Satan turns himself into that shape that we least fear, and sets before us such objects of temptation as are most agreeable to our natures, so he may the sooner draw us into his net; he sails with every wind, and blows us the way that we incline ourselves through the weakness of nature." ~Charles Spurgeon

"You swept down to this land of exile and suffered and died so that You could bear away every soul and plunge them into the heart of the Blessed Trinity, that inextinguishable furnace of love.  You re-entered the splendors of heaven, yet stayed in our vale of tears hidden under the appearance of a white host so that You can feed me with Your own substance.  O Jesus, do not be angry if I tell You that Your love is a mad love...and how can You expect my heart, when confronted with this folly, not to soar up to You?  How can there be any limit to my trust?'" ~ St. Therese of Lisieux

"If this Lord is powerful, as I see that He is and if the devils are His slaves…what evil can they do to me since I am a servant of this Lord and King?  Why shouldn't I have the fortitude to engage in combat with all of hell?" ~ St. Teresa of Avila


"You can't conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone the...appalling...strangeness of the mercy of God." ~ Graham Greene

"When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville

"He knew now that at the end there was only one thing that counted--to be a saint." Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory

"Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much.  You can never love her more than Jesus did." ~ St. Maximilian Kolbe


"Where there is no love, put love--and you will find love." ~ St. John of the Cross


"The state of marriage is one that requires more virtue and constancy than any other; it is a perpetual exercise of mortification." ~ St. Francis de Sales


"How many mothers have you known who have been the heroines of some epic or extraordinary event?  Few, very few.  Yet you and I know many mothers who are indeed heroic, truly heroic, who have never figured in anything spectacular, who will never hit the headlines, as they say.  They lead lives of constant self-denial, happy to curtail their own likes and preferences, their time, their opportunities for self-expression or success, so that they can carpet their children's lives with happiness." ~ St. Josemaria Escriva


"And yet in spite of this universal world which we see, there is another world, quite as farspreading, quite as close to us, and more wonderful; another world all around us, though we see it not, and more wonderful than the world we see, for this reason if for no other, that we do not see it. All around us are numberless objects, coming and going, watching, working or waiting, which we see not: this is that other world, which the eyes reach not unto, but faith only." ~ Blessed John Henry Newman from "The Invisible World"


"All men can be criminals, if tempted.  All men can be heroes, if inspired." ~ G.K. Chesterton


"I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt." ~ Pope Francis


"The homemaker has the ultimate career.  All other careers exist for one purpose only--and that is to support the ultimate career." ~ CS Lewis


"A mother cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral — a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby's body. The angels have not been blessed with such a grace...God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation. What on God's good earth is more glorious than this — to be a mother?" - Cardinal Mindzenty


"Let us strive to make the present moment beautiful." ~ St. John of the Cross

"God's love for us in heaven is no greater than God's love for us in this moment." ~ St. Thomas Aquinas


"Everything is grace." ~ St. Therese of Lisieux


"God loves every one of us as if there were only one of us to love." ~ St. Augustine



"Those who believe, see; they see with a light that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from the risen Christ, the morning star which never sets." ~ Pope Francis




"To him who loves, nothing is difficult." ~ St. Pius V


"About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we shouldn't complicate the matter." ~ St. Joan of Arc

"No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother." ~ St. Cyprian

"If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." ~ C.S. Lewis

"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." ~ Oscar Wilde

"She is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God.  If you say 'Mary' she says 'God.'" ~ St. Louis de Montfort

"The tyrant dies and his rule is over.  The martyr dies and his rule begins." ~ Kirkegaard


"Everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You’ve got to work hard to get to them. Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too." ~ Boxer Muhammad Ali's advice to his daughter


"Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love." ~ Saint Pope John Paul II

"If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great...When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundredfold in return." ~Pope Benedict XVI

"Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams." ~ Brothers Karamazov

"We are going to heaven, we are working for heaven, everything else is nothing." ~ St. Bernadette

"The Christian idea has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been found difficult and left untried." ~ G.K. Chesterton

"True love means going out of oneself, giving oneself.  Love brings joy, but a joy whose roots are in the shape of a cross.  As long as we are on earth and have not yet arrived at the fullness of the future life, we can never have true love without sacrifice and pain." ~ St. Josemaria Escriva

"No matter how much you may love, you will never love enough." ~ St. Josemaria Escriva

"The cross itself is not beautiful.  It is ugly.  But the embracing of that cross by supreme love is supremely beautiful." ~ Peter Kreeft

"Wisdom begins in wonder." ~ Socrates

“You can only come to the morning through the shadow.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
“The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm.  If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.” ~ St. Therese of Lisieux
“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.” ~ St. Therese of Lisieux

“It is not God who is responsible for the present evils, since He has constituted your nature to be uncontrolled and free.  The responsibility is with the perverse will which has chosen the worse rather than the better.” ~ St. Gregory of Nyssa
“It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this [gay marriage] is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man.” ~Blessed Pope John Paul II
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men” ~ Frederick Douglas
“No one in the world can change Truth.  What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it.  The real conflict is the inner conflict.  Beyond armies of occupation and the hecatombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love.  And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?” ~ St. Maximilian Kolbe
“Do not open your heart to everyone, but only one who is wise, God-fearing, and who can keep your confidence.” ~ Thomas à Kempis
“God designed the human machine to run on Himself.  He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on…God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing.” ~ C.S. Lewis
“Suffering for God is better than working miracles.” ~ St. John of the Cross
“If there are mountains in the way, obstacles, misunderstandings, and backbiting, which Satan seeks and God allows, you must have faith, faith with deeds, faith with sacrifice, faith with humility.” ~ St. Josemaria Escriva
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’  All that are in Hell, choose it.” ~ C.S. Lewis
“To be kind and loveable for a moment is no great feat.  But to be loving day after day in the most varied and trying circumstances can be achieved only by a man who truly loves.” ~ Alice von Hildebrand

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