Take some Ordinary Time to ... learn a Catholic quotation

Quotations taken from the Catholic Book of Quotations by Leo Knowles. More about the book here»

Total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation. -- St. Augustine (On The Good of Marriage)

The right practice of abstinence is needful not only to the mortification of the flesh but also to the purification of the mind.   .   .   . For the mind then only keeps holy and spiritual fast when it rejects the food of error and the poison of falsehood.  -- St. Leo the Great

In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word for “believe.” This root expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. And so we can understand why “Amen” may express God’s faithfulness to us and our trust in him. -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1062

I presume that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you played in the accomplishment of their Revolution, and the establishment of your government, or the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed. -- George Washington (To the Roman Catholics of the United States)

Asceticism   .   .   . is essentially the assertion of the body, not its negation. -- Abbot Anscar Vonier, O.S.B.

Remember, man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. -- The Roman Missal (Imposition of Ashes)

The Church is called Sion, because from the distance of its sojourn it contemplates the promise of heavenly things; therefore it has received the name Sion, that is, contemplation. In view of the future peace of its home, it is called Jerusalem. For Jerusalem means the vision of peace. -- St. Isidore of Seville (Etymologies)

The Church consists principally of two parts, the one called the Church triumphant, the other the Church militant. The Church triumphant is that most glorious and happy assemblage of blessed spirits, and those souls who have triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and, now exempt from the troubles of this life, are blessed with the fruit of everlasting bliss. The Church militant is the society of all the faithful still dwelling on earth, and is called militant, because it wages eternal war with those implacable enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. We are not, however, hence to infer that there are two Churches: they are two constituent parts of one Church. -- Catechism of the Council of Trent

It would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the most desirable status of the Church, or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for state and church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced. -- Pope Leo XIII (Longinque Oceani)

American Catholics rejoice in our separation of Church and state, and I can conceive of no combination of circumstances likely to arise which would make a union desirable for either Church or state. -- Cardinal James Gibbons (North American Review, March 1909)

I do not contend that everybody can be converted by reason, but I do contend that some people can be converted by reason. I do not regard Christianity purely as a system of thought; I regard Christianity as a way of life and a system of thought. -- Arnold Lunn (Now I See)

Most cradle Catholics have gone through, or need to go through, a second conversion which binds them with a more mature love and obedience to the Church. -- Dorothy Day

If you’re going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you’re going to be a Christian, you might as well be a Catholic. --
Muriel Spark, British novelist (newspaper interview)

For what else is sleep but a daily death which does not completely remove man hence nor detain him too long? And what else is death, but a very long and very deep sleep, from which God arouses man? -- St. Augustine

What, I pray you, is dying? Just what is it to put off a garment? For the body is about the soul as a garment; and after laying this aside for a short time by means of death, we shall resume it again with more splendor. -- St. John Chrysostom (Homilies)

Blessed be God for our Sister, the death of the body. -- St. Francis of Assisi

Do now, do now, what you will wish to have done when your moment comes to die. -- St. Angela Merici

Happy is the man who keeps the hour of death always in mind, and daily prepares for it. -- Thomas à Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)

If you go into a shop in the Eastern Empire, the cashier will start talking about the Begotten and the Unbegotten instead of giving you your change. The baker, instead of telling you how much his loaves cost, argues that the Father is greater than the Son. And if you want a bath, the attendant assures you that the Son most certainly proceeds from nothing. -- St. Gregory of Nyssa

From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion; I know no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery. Venerable John Henry Newman
(Apologia Pro Vita Sua)

The Catholic Church alone teaches as matters of faith those things which the thoroughly sincere person of every sect discovers, more or less obscurely for himself, but dares not believe for want of external sanction. -- Coventry Patmore

Truths turn into dogmas the moment they are disputed. -- G. K. Chesterton (Heretics)

.   .   . It is only the reasonable dogma that lives long enough to be called antiquated.  -- G. K. Chesterton

To say we want no dogma in religion is to assert a dogma. -- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (Religion Without God)

If we accept the religious view of man’s nature, we are compelled to take a very different, a radically different view of education. No longer can we think merely of getting on in the commercial and materialistic sense. We must now think of getting on in the sense of getting heavenwards. And in everything we learn and in everything we teach to our children or our pupils, we must bear this fact in mind. -- Eric Gill (It All Goes Together)

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. -- G. K. Chesterton (What’s Wrong with the World)

The mere probability that a human person is involved would suffice to justify an absolutely clear prohibition of any intervention aimed at killing a human embryo. -- Pope John Paul II (Evangelium Vitae)

It is love makes faith, not faith love. -- Venerable John Henry Newman (Parochial and Plain Sermons)

It is nearly always faith which Our Lord praises and rewards. Sometimes he praises love, sometimes humility, but this is rare.   .   .   . Faith, though not the supreme virtue – charity holds that place – is nevertheless the most important because it is the basis of all the others, charity included. Also it is the rarest.   .   .   . Real faith, faith which inspires all one’s actions, faith in the supernatural which strips the world of its mask and reveals God in everything, which makes meaningless the words “impossible,” “anxiety,” “danger” and “fear” . . . how rare that is! -- Venerable Charles de Foucauld

If we believe, everything can be transformed into Our Lord. -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

The most beautiful act of faith is the one made in darkness, in sacrifice, and with extreme effort. -- St. Padre Pio

The resources at our disposal today, the powers that we have released, could not possibly be absorbed by the narrow system of individual or national units which the architects of the human earth have hitherto used.   .   .   . The age of nations has passed. Now, unless we wish to perish we must shake off our old prejudices and build the earth.   .   .   . The more scientifically I regard the world, the less can I see any possible biological future for it except the active consciousness of its unity. -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

Lord, help me to preach the Gospel wherever I go, and if I must, even through words. -- St. Francis of Assisi

Whoever gossips to you will gossip of you. -- Spanish proverb

The best form of government is in a state or kingdom, wherein one is given the power to preside over all, while under him are others having governing powers: and yet a government of this kind is shared by all, both because all are eligible to govern, and because the rulers are chosen by all. For this is the best form of polity, being partly kingdom, since there is one at the head of all; partly aristocracy, in so far as a number of persons are set in authority; partly democracy, i.e. government by the people, and the people have the right to choose their rulers. -- St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica)

It is not enough for me that God has given me grace once, but he must give it always. I ask, that I may receive; and when I have received, I ask again. I am covetous of receiving God’s bounty. He is never slow in giving, nor am I ever weary of receiving. The more I drink, the more thirsty I become. -- St. Jerome

Every holy thought is the gift of God, the inspiration of God, the grace of God. -- St. Ambrose (Concerning Cain)

No structure of virtue can possibly be raised in our soul unless, first, the foundations of true humility are laid in our heart. -- St. John Cassian

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart. -- St. Augustine (The City of God)

For he is less in need who is without a garment, than he who is without humility. -- Pope St. Gregory the Great (Morals)

Humility, which humiliation teaches us to practice, is the foundation of the entire spiritual fabric. Thus humiliation is the way to humility, as patience to peace, as reading to knowledge. If you long for the virtue of humility, you must not flee from the way of humiliation. For if you do not allow yourself to be humiliated, you cannot attain to humility. -- St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Letters)

Grant me a sense of humor, Lord,
the saving grace to see a joke,
To win some happiness from life,
And pass it on to other folk.
May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been
the foresight to know where you’re going
and the insight to know when you’re going too far.
May you live to be a hundred years, with one extra year to repent!
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.
God save all here, barrin’ the cat.  – Traditional

I have a capacity in my soul for taking in God entirely. I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God. -- Meister Eckhart

Having found in many books different methods of going to God, and divers practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me, than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly God’s.   .   .   . I renounced for the love of Him everything that was not He; and I began to live as though there was none but He and I in the world.   .   .   . I worshipped Him as often as I could, keeping my mind in His holy Presence, and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I found no small pain in this exercise, and yet I continued it notwithstanding all the difficulties that occurred.   .   .   . When we faithfully keep ourselves in His holy Presence, and set Him always before us; this not only hinders our offending Him, at least willfully, but it also begets holy freedom and, if I may so speak, a familiarity with God.   .   .   .  -- Brother Lawrence (The Practice of the Presence of God)

Brother Lawrence had found such an advantage in walking in the presence of God, it was natural for him to recommend it earnestly to others; but his example was a stronger inducement than any argument he could propose. His very countenance was edifying, such a sweet and calm devotion appearing in it, as could not but affect the beholders. And it was observed that, in the greatest hurry of business in the kitchen, he still preserved his recollection and heavenly mindedness. He was never hasty or loitering, but did each thing in season, with an even uninterrupted composure and tranquility of spirit. “The time of business,” he said, “does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several people are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees before the Blessed Sacrament.” -- (The Practice of the Presence of God: Letters and Conversations of Brother Lawrence)

There is never a moment when God does not come forward in the guise of some suffering or some duty, and all that takes place within us, around us and through us both includes and hides his activity. -- Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J. (Abandonment to Divine Providence)

The mercy of God may be found between the bridge and the stream. St. Augustine (Confessions)

Teach me to feel another’s woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
Alexander Pope
It is not our perfection which is to dazzle God, Who is surrounded by myriads of angels. No, it is our misery, our wretchedness avowed which draws down his mercy. -- Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S.B.

Nobody is ever lost in God’s eyes, even when society has condemned him. -- Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger

I must not belong to myself at all, but to my Creator and to his vicar. I must be like a ball of wax, ready to be directed and moved about just as it allows itself to be kneaded.   .   .   . I must be like a corpse, without will or understanding; like a tiny crucifix, which is moved about without resisting; like a staff in the hand of an old man, to be placed wherever he wishes and can use it best. -- St. Ignatius Loyola (Spiritual Exercises)

Divine Goodness does not only NOT reject penitent souls, but goes out in search of obstinate souls. -- St. Padre Pio

Souls without prayer are like bodies, palsied and lame, having hands and feet they cannot use. -- St. Teresa of Ávila (The Interior Castle)

However softly we speak, he is near enough to hear us. Neither is there any need for wings to go to find him. All one need do is go into solitude and look at him within oneself.   .   .   . Since he does not force our will, he takes what we give him; but he does not give himself completely unless we give ourselves completely. -- St. Teresa of Ávila (The Way of Perfection)

Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home. -- St. Rose of Viterbo

You need not cry very loud; he is nearer to us than we think. -- Brother Lawrence

I would have no desire other than to do your will. Teach me to pray; pray yourself in me. -- Archbishop François Fénelon

If according to times and needs you should be obliged to make fresh rules and change certain things, do it with prudence and good advice. -- St. Angela Merici

Prudence is the cause of the other virtues being virtues at all. -- Joseph Pieper

In the measure you desire him, you will find him. -- St. Teresa of Ávila  (The Way of Perfection)

Withold your heart from all things: seek God and you will find him. -- St. Teresa of Ávila (Maxims)

There are three kinds of people: those who have sought God and found him, and these are reasonable and happy; those who seek God and have not yet found him, and these are reasonable and unhappy; and those who neither seek God nor find him, and these are unreasonable and unhappy. -- Blaise Pascal (Pensées)

The more I am crucified, the more I rejoice. -- St. Bernadette

Suffering passes, but the fact of having suffered never leaves us. -- Léon Bloy

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today. -- Pope Paul VI

The great scandal of the 19th century is that the Church lost the working class. -- Pope Pius XI

Every evil, harm and suffering in this life comes from the love of riches. -- St. Catherine of Siena

All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth and by wealth they measure respectability. -- Venerable John Henry Newman

If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze! -- Pope John Paul II (World Youth Day, Rome 2000)

Quotations taken from the Catholic Book of Quotations by Leo Knowles. More about the book here»