Ambrose Quotes

Let God alone be sought as the judge of loveliness, Who loves even in less beautiful bodies the more beautiful souls.

since complete piety is to believe rightly, so complete impiety is to believe wrongly.

They, then, who are able also to fight for us are able to guard the fruit that is in us. And for you, holy virgins, there is a special guardianship, for you who with unspotted chastity keep the couch of the Lord holy. And no wonder if the angels fight for you who war with the mode of life of angels. Virginal chastity merits their guardianship whose life it attains to.

Avarice is inflamed by gain, not diminished by it.

after that those sheep, I say, [ Jeremiah 2: 13 ] had refused the fountain of living water, the dew of moistening faith dried up in the breasts of the Jews, and that divine Fountain turned away its course to the hearts of the Gentiles. Whence it has come to pass that now the whole world is moistened with the dew of faith,

Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind, and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light...

Neither angel, nor archangel, nor yet even the Lord Himself (who alone can say "I am with you"), can, when we have sinned, release us, unless we bring repentance with us.

Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more;
Si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.

The devil tempts that he may ruin; God tests that he may crown.

Sed non solum locum Ecclesiae zelare debemus, sed hanc quoque interiorem in nobis domum Dei; ne sit domus negotiationis, aut spelunca latronum.

liberality is determined not by the amount of our possessions, but by the disposition of giving.

For then especially does the enemy lay his plans, when he sees passions engendered in us; then he supplies tinder; then he lays snares.

nothing is so much opposed to fortitude as when one allows oneself to be overcome by gain.

What have we to do with tales and fables? An office to minister at the altar of Christ is what we have received; no duty to make ourselves agreeable to men has been laid upon us.

When I am here I do not fast on Saturday; but when I am at Rome I do: whatever church you may come to, conform to its custom, if you would avoid either receiving or giving offense.