St. Augustine of Hippo, Gerhard Seghers, mid-1600s.

To be under pressure is inescapable. Pressure takes place through all the world; war, siege, the worries of state. We all know men who grumble under these pressures and complain. They are cowards. They lack splendour. But there is another sort of man who is under the same pressure but does not complain, for it is the friction which polishes him. It is the pressure which refines and makes him noble.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.

Put no faith in salvation through the political order.

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.

What is reprehensible is that while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.

Because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false.

The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.

Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.

Two criminals were crucified with Christ. One was saved; do not despair. One was not; do not presume.

He who denies the existence of God, has some reason for wishing that God did not exist.

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.

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

The greatest kindness one can render to any man is leading him to truth.

Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.

Remember this. When people choose to withdraw far from a fire, the fire continues to give warmth, but they grow cold. When people choose to withdraw far from light, the light continues to be bright in itself but they are in darkness. This is also the case when people withdraw from God.

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.

It is not that we keep His commandments first and that then He loves but that He loves us and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace which is revealed to the humble but hidden from the proud.

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.

It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.

No one can have God as his father who does not have the Church as his mother.

Anger is a weed; hate is a tree.

Too late came I to love You, O Beauty both so ancient and so new! Too late came I to love You – and behold You were with me all the time . . .

Better that I find You, God, and leave the questions unanswered, than to find the answers without finding You.