Philip Neri Quotes

Cast yourself into the arms of God and be very sure that if he wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you strength.

A joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one.

The best way to prepare for death is to spend every day of life as though it were the last.

Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast.

First let a little love find entrance into their hearts, and the rest will follow.

There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer.

We are not saints yet, but we, too, should beware. Uprightness and virtue do have their rewards, in self-respect and in respect from others, and it is easy to find ourselves aiming for the result rather than the cause. Let us aim for joy, rather than respectability. Let us make fools of ourselves from time to time, and thus see ourselves, for a moment, as the all-wise God sees us.

The cross is the gift God gives to his friends.

To preserve our cheerfulness amid sicknesses and troubles, is a sign of a right and good spirit.

He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.

My Jesus, if you uphold me, I shall not fall.

The Lord grants in a moment what we may have been unable to obtain in dozens of years.

The best remedy for dryness of spirit, is to picture ourselves as beggars in the presence of God and the Saints, and like a beggar, to go first to one saint, then to another, to ask a spiritual alms of them with the same earnestness as a poor fellow in the streets would ask an alms of us.

Christian joy is a gift of God flowing from a good conscience.

He who is unable to spend a long time together in prayer, should often lift up his mind to God by short prayers.

Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing the danger. For my part, when I find a man secure of himself and without fear, I give him up for lost. I am less alarmed for one who is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions. When a person puts himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul.

We must often remember what Christ said, that not he who begins, but he that perseveres to the end, shall be saved.

We must sometimes bear with little defects in others, as we have, against our will, to bear with natural defects in ourselves. If we wish to keep peace with our neighbor, we should never remind anyone of his natural defects.

The greatness of our love of God must be tested by the desire we have of suffering for His love.

My children, if you desire perseverance, be devout to our Blessed Lady.

Heaven is not made for the slothful.

Believe me, there is no more powerful means to obtain God's grace than to employ the intercessions of the Holy Virgin.

At communion we ought to ask for the remedy of the vice to which we feel ourselves most inclined.

The great thing is to become Saints.

Those who have themselves for a spiritual director have a fool for a spiritual director.