John Vianney Quotes

“Do not try to please everybody. Try to please God, the angels, and the saints - they are your public.”

— John Vianney

There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us.

— John Vianney

Only after the Last Judgment will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children.

— John Vianney

Humility is like a pair of scales: the lower one side falls, the higher rises the other. Let us humble ourselves like the Blessed Virgin and we shall be exalted.

— John Vianney

“The Lord is more anxious to forgive our sins than a woman is to carry her baby out of a burning building.”

— John Vianney

“We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that - they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen.”

— John Vianney

A priest goes to Heaven or a priest goes to Hell with a thousand people behind.

— John Vianney

“On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses ... We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight - we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses, and make use of them to take us to heaven?”

— John Vianney

“My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun.”

— John Vianney

“We ought to run after crosses as the miser runs after money ... Nothing but crosses will reassure us at the Day of Judgment When that day shall come, we shall be happy in our misfortunes, proud of our humiliations, and rich in our sacrifices!”

— John Vianney

“You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God.”

— John Vianney

“If you invoke the Blessed Virgin when you are tempted, she will come at once to your help, and Satan will leave you.”

— John Vianney

“I thought a time would come when people would rout me out of Ars with sticks, when the Bishop would suspend me, and I should end my days in prison. I see, however, that I am not worthy of such a grace.”

— John Vianney

The first thing about the angels that we ought to imitate, is their consciousness of the Presence of God.

— John Vianney

“If people would do for God what they do for the world, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven.”

— John Vianney

“It is always springtime in the heart that loves God.”

— John Vianney

“The Devil writes down our sins - our Guardian Angel all our merits. Labor that the Guardian Angel's book may be full, and the Devil's empty.”

— John Vianney

“When we receive Holy Communion, we experience something extraordinary - a joy, a fragrance, a well-being that thrills the whole body and causes it to exalt.”

— John Vianney

“How sweet it is to die if one has lived on the Cross!”

— John Vianney

“The saints had no hatred, no bitterness; they forgive everything and think they deserve much more for their offenses against God.”

— John Vianney

“If you are attached to the things of this earth, you should give alms sufficient to enable you to punish your avarice by depriving yourself of all that is not absolutely necessary for life.”

— John Vianney

“The man of impure speech is a person whose lips are but an opening and a supply pipe which hell uses to vomit its impurities upon the earth.”

— John Vianney

“All that we do without offering it to God is wasted.”

— John Vianney

Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter.

— John Vianney

If you find it impossible to pray, hide behind your good Angel and charge him to pray in your stead.

— John Vianney

“God commands you to pray, but forbids you to worry.”

— John Vianney

“We ought to ask the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the saints to pray for us that we may receive the good God as worthily as it is possible for us to receive him.”

— John Vianney

“Christian wife! Follow in the footsteps of the ideal of all womanhood, the Blessed Mother of God; in joy and in sorrow, she will be your advocate at the throne of her Son.”

— John Vianney

“Sin is the assassin of the soul.”

— John Vianney

“Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.”

— John Vianney

“The sign of the cross is the most terrible weapon against the devil. Thus the Church wishes not only that we have it continually in front of our minds to recall to us just what our souls are worth and what they cost Jesus Christ, but also that we should make it at every juncture ourselves: when we go to bed, when we awaken during the night, when we get up, when we begin any action, and, above all, when we are tempted.”

— John Vianney

When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant.

— John Vianney

“See, my children, a person who is in a state of sin is always sad. Whatever he does, he is weary and disgusted with every thing; while he who is at peace with God is always happy, always joyous ... Oh, beautiful life! Oh, beautiful death!”

— John Vianney

“When we have been to Holy Communion, the balm of love envelops the soul as the flower envelops the bee.”

— John Vianney

To serve the Queen of Heaven is already to reign there, and to live under her commands is more than to govern.

— John Vianney

“Our Guardian Angels are our most faithful friends, because they are with us day and night, always and everywhere. We ought often to invoke them.”

— John Vianney

“If only we could see the joy of our guardian angel when he sees us fighting our temptations!”

— John Vianney

“Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.”

— John Vianney

“The pure soul is a beautiful rose, and the Three Divine Persons descend from Heaven to inhale its fragrance.”

— John Vianney

“Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray!”

— John Vianney

How happy is that guardian angel who accompanies a soul to Holy Mass!

— John Vianney

“On this path, it is only the first step that counts.”

— John Vianney

“Understand this clearly: if you know how to give, you must know how to pay back ...”

— John Vianney

“A pure soul is like a fine pearl. As long as it is hidden in the shell, at the bottom of the sea, no one thinks of admiring it. But if you bring it into the sunshine, this pearl will shine and attract all eyes. Thus the pure soul, which is hidden from the eyes of the world, will one day shine before the Angels in the sunshine of eternity.”

— John Vianney

Upon receiving Holy Communion, the Adorable Blood of Jesus Christ really flows in our veins and His Flesh is really blended with ours.

— John Vianney

Our body is a vessel of corruption; it is meant for death and for the worms, nothing more! And yet we devote ourselves to satisfying it, rather than to enriching our soul, which is so great that we can conceive nothing greater - no, nothing, nothing!

— John Vianney

“There were two saints in the desert, who had sewed thorns into all their clothes; and we seek for nothing but comfort!”

— John Vianney

“Have you been working on Sunday? Have you been buying or selling without necessity in the course of this holy day? Give to the poor some alms which will exceed the profit you have made.”

— John Vianney

“Almighty God sends no trial without consolation.”

— John Vianney

“Others will give away large alms in order to be considered charitable people. Should they not give these out of their own wages, which so often they squander on trifles? If this has happened to you, do not forget that you are obliged to pay back to the person concerned all that you gave to the poor without the knowledge or consent of your employers. Then again, there is the one who has been entrusted by his employer with the supervision of the staff, or of workmen, who gives out wine and all sorts of other things to them if they ask him.”

— John Vianney