Quotes by Saint Teresa of Avila

All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.

Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.

God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.

God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.

I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.

I used to discuss with my brother ways and means of becoming martyrs, and we agreed to go together to the land of the Moors, begging our way for the love of God, so that we might be beheaded there. I believe that our Lord had given us courage enough even at that tender age, if only we could have seen a way. But our parents seemed to us a very great hindrance.

It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found - not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater.

Let nothing disturb thee;Let nothing dismay thee;All thing pass;God never changesPatience attainsAll that it strives for.He who has GodFinds he lacks nothing:God alone suffices.

O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.

Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.

Pain is never permanent.

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.

The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.

To have courage for whatever comes in life - everything lies in that.

To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.

We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.

We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble.

True recollection has characteristics by which it can be easily recognized. It produces a certain effect which I do not know how to explain, but which is well understood by those who have experienced it. . . . It is true that recollection has several degrees, and that in the beginning these great effects are not felt, because it is not yet profound enough. But support the pain which you first feel in recollecting yourself, despise the rebellion of nature, overcome the resistance of the body, which loves a liberty which is its ruin, learn self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantages which you gain from it. As soon as 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: and this will take place without effort or care on your part. God thus rewards the violence which your soul has been doing to itself; and gives to it such a domination over the senses that a sign is enough when it desires to recollect itself, for them to obey and so gather themselves together. 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.

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.

Anyone who truly loves God travels securely.

Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions - which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.

I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible.

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.