Quotes from St. Teresa of Avila

It is love alone that gives worth to all things.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ's compassion to the world Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.

Thank God for the things that I do not own.

Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God.

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

Be gentle to all, and stern with yourself.

Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.

Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, all things are passing, God is unchanging. Patience gains all; nothing is lacking to those who have God: God alone is sufficient.

God withholds Himself from no one who perseveres.

Union is as if in a room there were two large windows through which the light streamed in it enters in diffrent places but it all becomes one.

To reach something good, it is useful to have gone astray.

Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience turns a very short time into a long one.

Tear your heart away from everything else; then seek God and you will surely find him.

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

Christ has no body now but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet and loves with my heart.

After you die, you wear what you are.

Reading is of great service towards procuring recollection in any one who proceeds in this way; and it is even necessary for him, however little it may be that he reads, if only as a substitute for the mental prayer which is beyond his reach.

The love of God does not consist in tears or in this delight ad tenderness, which for the greater part we desire and find consolation in; but it consists in serving with justice and fortitude of soil and in humility. Without such service it seems to me we would be receiving everything and giving nothing.

What is it we buy with this money we desire? Is it something valuable? Is it something lasting? Oh, why do we desire it? Miserable is the rest achieved that costs so dearly.

Since in the centre of the soul there is a mansion reserved for God Himself...

I believe we shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavouring to know God, for, beholding His greatness we are struck by our own baseness, His purity shows our foulness, and by meditating on His humility we find how very far we are from being humble. 11.

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.

My fondness for good books was my salvation.