One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Saint Martin, seeing the Divine Mendicant in him, took him to his own bed, paying no heed to the fact that he was not perfectly neat and clean. One of his brethren, considering he had gone too far in his charity, reproved him.
Saint Martin replied: “Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.”
-- St. Martin de Porres

Chrysostom fears only one thing — not exile, prison, poverty or death — but sin. -- St. John Chrysostom

True charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbor's faults, never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues.
-- St Therese of Lisieux

Have you begun to stop trying to defend your sins? Then you have made a beginning of righteousness!
-- St. Augustine

It often happens that we pray God to deliver us from some dangerous temptation, and yet God does not hear us but permits the temptation to continue troubling us. In such a case, let us understand that God permits even this for our greater good. When a soul in temptation recommends itself to God, and by His aid resists, O how it then advances in perfection.
-- St. Alphonsus Liguori

The highest perfection consists not in interior favors or in great raptures, but in the bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the Will of God that, as soon as we realize that he wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might.
-- St. Teresa of Avila

Satisfaction consists in the cutting off of the causes of the sin. Thus, fasting is the proper antidote to lust; prayer to pride, to envy, anger and sloth; alms to covetousness.
-- St. Richard of Chichester

Who is so strong as never to be overcome by temptation, except he who has the grace of the Lord for his helper?
-- St. Augustine

Those who are led by the Holy Spirit have true ideas. That's why so many ignorant people are wiser than the learned.
-- St. John Vianney

If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a Saint.
-- St Ignatius Loyola

Anxiety proceeds from an ill-regulated desire to be delivered from the evil we experience, or to acquire the good to which we aspire; nevertheless, nothing aggravates evil and hinders good so much as anxiety and worry.
-- St Francis de Sales

Take care not to meddle in things which do not concern you, nor even allow them to pass through your mind; for perhaps you will not then be able to fulfil your own task.
-- St. John of the Cross

It should be our principal business to conquer ourselves and, from day to day, to go on increasing in strength and perfection. Above all, however, it is necessary for us to strive to conquer our little temptations, such as fits of anger, suspicions, jealousies, envy, deceitfulness, vanity, attachments, and evil thoughts. For in this way we shall acquire strength to subdue greater ones.
-- St. Francis De Sales

Let your old age be childlike, and your childhood like old age; that is,so that neither may your wisdom be with pride, nor your humility without wisdom.
-- St. Augustine

If I were worthy of such a favor from my God, I would ask that he grant me this one miracle: that by His grace He would make of me a good man.
-- St Ansgar

He who faithfully prays to God for the necessaries of this life is both mercifully heard, and mercifully not heard. For the physician knows better than the sick man what is good for the disease.
-- St. Augustine