Teresa Of Avila Quotes

“However softly we speak, God is near enough to hear us.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith. Patient endurance attends to all things.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Humility must always be doing its work like a bee making honey in the hive: without humility all will be lost.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Those who in fact risk all for God will find that they have both lost all and gained all.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Before prayer, endeavor to realize whose Presence you are approaching, and to whom you are about to speak. We can never fully understand how we ought to behave towards God, before whom the angels tremble.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Half-instructed confessors have done my soul great harm; for I could not always have such learned ones as I would have desired. They certainly did not wish to deceive me, but the fact was that they knew no better. Of something which was a venial sin, they said it was no sin, and out of a very grave mortal sin they made a venial sin. This has done me such harm, that my speaking here of so great an evil, as a warning to others, will be readily understood.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“The life of prayer is just love to God, and the custom of being ever with Him.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.”

— Teresa Of Avila

It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not always be the same.

— Teresa Of Avila

“If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with His sign, which is the sign of the Cross, in token that they have given Him their freedom.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Our greatest gain is to lose the wealth that is of such brief duration and, by comparison with eternal things, of such little worth; yet we get upset about it and our gain turns to loss.”

— Teresa Of Avila

Don't imagine that, if you had a great deal of time, you would spend more of it in prayer. Get rid of that idea; it is no hindrance to prayer to spend your time well.

— Teresa Of Avila

“In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give Him thanks.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Nothing is small if God accepts it.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“All things pass ... Patience attains all it strives for.”

— Teresa Of Avila

Every part of the journey is of importance to the whole.

— Teresa Of Avila

“Ah, how true it is that we love ourselves too much and proceed with too much human prudence, that we may not lose an atom of our consideration! Oh, what a great mistake that is! The Saints did not act thus.”

— Teresa Of Avila

There seem to me a great many blessings which come from true poverty and I should be sorry to be deprived of them.

— Teresa Of Avila

“May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds.”

— Teresa Of Avila

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

— Teresa Of Avila

“Strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“His Majesty [the Lord] ... rewards great services with trials, and there can be no better reward, for out of trials springs love for God.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“To want to become angels while we are still on earth ... is ridiculous.”

— Teresa Of Avila

The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility.

— Teresa Of Avila

God deliver me from people who are so spiritual that they want to turn everything into perfect contemplation, come what may.

— Teresa Of Avila

Learn to self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it. As soon you apply yourself to orison, you will at once feel your senses gather themselves together: they seem like bees which return to the hive and there shut themselves up to work at the making of honey. At the first call of the will, they come back more and more quickly. At last, after countless exercises, of this kind, God disposes them to a state of utter rest and of perfect contemplation.

— Teresa Of Avila

Prayer is a friendly conversation with the One we know loves us.

— Teresa Of Avila

“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.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Never compare one person with another: comparisons are odious.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Never exaggerate, but express your feelings with moderation.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Love makes labour light. Love alone gives value to all things.”

— Teresa Of Avila

The saints rejoiced at injuries and persecutions, because in forgiving them they had something to present to God when they prayed to Him.

— Teresa Of Avila

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

— Teresa Of Avila

Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.

— Teresa Of Avila

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

— Teresa Of Avila

“What a miserable life is this! There is no happiness that is secure and nothing that does not change.”

— Teresa Of Avila

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

— Teresa Of Avila

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

— Teresa Of Avila

All times are dangerous times.

— Teresa Of Avila

“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!”

— Teresa Of Avila

“All things must come to its roots from where it is planted.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Don't be curious of matters that don't concern you; never speak of them, and don't ask about them.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“Let us look at our own faults, and not other people's. We ought not to insist on everyone following in our footsteps, nor to take upon ourselves to give instructions in spirituality when, perhaps, we do not even know what it is.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty.”

— Teresa Of Avila

We bloomed in Spring. Our bodies are the leaves of God. The apparent seasons of life and death our eyes can suffer; but our souls, dear, I will just say this forthright: they are God Himself, we will never perish until He does.

— Teresa Of Avila

“Blessed be He, Who came into the world for no other purpose than to suffer.”

— Teresa Of Avila

“To converse with You, O King of glory, no third person is needed, You are always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience to all. All who desire You always find You there, and converse with You face to face”

— Teresa Of Avila