Quotes from Pope John XXIII

Here I am at the end of the road and at the top of the heap.

It is now for the Catholic Church to bend herself to her work with calmness and generosity. It is for you to observe her with renewed and friendly attention.

The true and solid peace of nations consists not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone.

Relations between States, as between individuals, must be regulated not by armed force, but in accordance with...truth, justice and vigorous and sincere co-operation.

Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said.

In this world of ours, every believer must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying ferment for the mass; and it will be that all the more as, in the depths of his being, he lives in communion with God.

The council now beginning rises in the Church like the daybreak, a forerunner of most splendid light.

Every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity.

Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways, women, gambling, and farming. My family chose the slowest one.

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.

Mankind is a great, an immense family... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.

I am able to follow my own death step by step. Now I move softly towards the end.

The conviction that all men are equal by reason of their natural dignity has been generally accepted. Hence racial discrimination can no longer be justified.

The whole world is my family.

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.

I am made to tremble and I fear!

See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.

Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.