Teresa of Ávila Quotes

I am quite sure I am more afraid of people who are themselves terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself.

It is certain, my Lord, that in these days withdrawal from the world means no sacrifice at all.

Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

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 we seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty. All our interest is centred in the rough setting of the diamond, and in the outer wall of the castle — that is to say, in these bodies of ours.

Truth suffers, but never dies.

Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.

Any true ecstast is a sign you are going in the right direction...don't let any prude tell you otherwise

our faculties seem to be making war upon us, as if they were resentful of the war made upon them by our vices.

Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee: All things pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices.

As I see it, we shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God: let

Mirad que no son tiempos de creer a todos, sino a los que viereis van conforme a la vida de Cristo.

Prayer alone can do a lot of good for the people you pray for. Beyond that, it’s not necessary to try to help the whole world. Concentrate on your own circle of companions who need you. Then, whatever you do will be of greater benefit.

For if the will has nothing to employ it and love has no present object with which to busy itself, the soul finds itself without either support or occupation, its solitude and aridity cause it great distress and its thoughts involve it in the severest conflict.

matters. Do you think, my daughters, that it is an easy matter to have to do business with the world, to live in the world, to engage in the affairs of the world, and, as I have said, to live as worldly men do, and yet inwardly to be strangers to the world, and enemies of the world, like persons who are in exile — to be, in short, not men but angels?

Let’s make the best possible use of our feet first and learn to know ourselves. And yet it seems to me that we will never know ourselves unless we seek to know God. Glimpsing his greatness, we recognize our own powerlessness; gazing upon his purity, we notice where we are impure; pondering his humility, we see how far from humble we are.