Vincent de Paul Quotes - Page 8

I feel so strongly about the truths Our Lord taught us by word and example that I cannot help but see how everything done according to that teaching always succeeds perfectly well, while things done the opposite way have a quite different result.

Naturally, everyone is disheartened by sharp reprimands, and by the most amiable corrections as well, if they are frequent, immoderate, or given inappropriately.

Experience teaches that what is feasible at the beginning is sometimes harmful as things go on, or subject to troublesome inconveniences

... bear with him as Our Lord bore with His disciples, who gave Him good reason to complain - at least, some of them did. Yet, He allowed them to remain in His company and tried to bring them around gently.

We must be firm but not rough in our guidance and avoid an insipid kind of meekness, which is ineffective. We will learn from Our Lord how our meekness should always be accompanied by humility and grace so as to attract hearts to Him and not cause anyone to turn away from Him.

You know that you yourself are not always in the same state. If you are exact today, closely united to God, and a consolation to the whole house, tomorrow you will be out of sorts, indolent, and a source of affliction to others. Then you will need their support, as you have supported them.

So, we pray well when we remain in this way in the presence of God, with no exertion of the understanding or will. Therefore, you will do well to listen to God in the urge you feel to return to us.

Three can do more than ten when Our Lord puts His hand to things, and He always does so when He takes away the means of doing otherwise.

It is true that zeal is the soul of the virtues, but most certainly, Monsieur, it must be according to knowledge, as Saint Paul says; that means: according to knowledge of experience. And because young people ordinarily do not possess this experiential knowledge, their zeal goes to excess, especially in those who have a natural asperity.

I would rather him to bear patiently with it than to put himself in danger of a greater evil.

I thank God for having given the Company subjects who belong more to Him than to themselves, and who serve the neighbor at the risk of their lives! They are like unrefined gold, which becomes visible in fire and which would otherwise remain hidden under ordinary actions and sometimes under faults and failings.

Is it not better to fail after asking advice than to risk acting on our own?

There is a vast difference between an Apostolic life and the solitude of the Carthusians. The latter is truly very holy but is not suited to those whom God has called to the former, which is in itself more excellent.

If you no longer have any income, you will not be neglected-you will not starve to death. . . . We panic at first, but God does not always allow the evil that is feared to happen.

[N]or should you move so fast! The works of God do not proceed in that way; they come about of themselves, and those He does not create soon perish.

. . . in the final analysis, virtue is not found in extremes, but in prudence . . .

You must moderate yourself according to your strength. When you have done all that you can to see that no Christian is perverted, you must find your consolation in Our Lord, who could prevent this misfortune and who is not doing so.

. . . [Y]ou must understand that we have always considered the writing of books a hindrance to our work, and that for this reason the custom was not to be introduced into the Company. However, since no rule, however general, does not have some exception, we shall see whether it is advisable to have yours printed.

...Seek counsel of very pious, disinterested persons, and follow the call of O[ur] L[ord] and the advice of those persons.

We must hold as an irrefutable maxim that the difficulties we have with our neighbor arise more from our immortified moods than from anything else.

What you are saying is true of those who want everything to give way to them, nothing to oppose them, everything to go their way, people to obey them without comment or delay and, in a manner of speaking, to be adored.

Just as stinginess is blameworthy, so is facility in paying more for things than they are worth...

[A] sick mind cannot be cured by the sheer force of persuasion.

Furthermore, the apostolic life does not exclude contemplation but encompasses it and profits by it to know better the eternal truths it must proclaim

Since I am a great sinner, I cannot reject those who have been, provided they have good will.