Teresa Of Avila Quotes

The best thing must be to flee from all to the All.

It is the nature of love to work in a thousand different ways.

May nothing wind you up, nothing affright you; everything comes and goes. God, still, just there; through patience all will be achieved. If you have God, you lack nothing: God alone will do.

[Last words:] My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another.

Whenever conscience commands anything, there is only one thing to fear, and that is fear.

But the fact is, things always seem to come slowly when you are longing for them.

It is not so essential to think much as to love much.

It is a most certain truth, that the richer we see ourselves to be, confessing at the same time our poverty, the greater will be our progress, and the more real our humility.

Thank God for the things that I do not own.

I only wish I could write with both hands, so as not to forget one thing while I am saying another.

Learn to self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it.

What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we will or no, must ever bear us company?

There is more security in self-denial, mortification, and other like virtues, than in an abundance of tears.

Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices.

From heaven even the most miserable life will look like one bad night at an inconvenient hotel.

Union is as if in a room there were two large windows through which the light streamed in; it enters in different places but it all becomes one.

Never do anything which you could not do in the sight of all.

I made you, dear, and all I make is perfect. Please come close, for I desire you.

You ought to make every effort to free yourselves even from venial sin, and to do what is most perfect.

The important thing is not to think much but to love much; do, then, whatever most arouses you to love.

Consider seriously how quickly people change, and how little trust is to be had in them; and hold fast to God, Who does not change.

God prefers your health, and your obedience, to your penance.

How is it that there are not many who are led by sermons to forsake open sin? Do you know what I think? That is because preachers have too much worldly wisdom.

Seldom or never is a poor man honored by the world; however worthy of honor he may be, he is apt rather to be despised by it.

However much we do to avoid them, we shall never lack crosses in this life if we are in the ranks of the Crucified.

Lord, how Thou dost afflict Thy lovers!

Our soul can find in the Blessed Sacrament all the joys and consolations it desires.

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

It is only mercenaries who expect to be paid by the day.

Holy church-that mother who is also a queen because she is a king's bride.

Patient endurance attends to all things.

To wish to act like angels while we are still in this world is nothing but folly.

God, deliver me from sullen saints.

Never compare one person with another: comparisons are odious.

God has no hands or feet or voice except ours and through these He works.

I have always had this failing - that I cannot explain myself, as I have said, except at the cost of many words.

Let thy words be few when in the midst of many.

We are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense.

Lord, how you afflict your lovers! But everything is small in comparison to what you give them afterwards.

I am quite sure that if we could but once approach the Most Holy Sacrament with great faith and love, it would suffice to make us rich. How much more so if we approach it often!

How is it, Lord, that we are cowards in everything save in opposing thee?

Be gentle and kind with every one, and severe with yourself.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour.

Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God. God alone is sufficient.

A slight failing in one virtue is enough to put all the others to sleep.

I would never want any prayer that would not make the virtues grow within me.

[On her father:] ... in losing him I lost my greatest blessing and comfort, for he was always that to me.

In order to profit from this path [of prayer] and ascend to the dwelling places we desire, the important thing is not to think much but to love much; and so, do that which best stirs you to love.

Patience obtains everything.