Quotes from Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange

St. Gregory the Great says: "Men ought by prayer to dispose themselves to receive what Almighty God from eternity has decided to give them."1096

The greatest things often lie concealed in the most insignificant, as in a mustard seed, or in the tiny trickle which is the beginning of a mighty river.

Meekness disarms the violent.

True strength of will is calm; in calmness it is persevering so that it does not become discouraged by momentary lack of success or by any wounds received. No one is conquered until he has given up the struggle. And he who works for the Lord puts his confidence in God and not in himself.982

Thus trial causes hope to grow, and hope does not deceive us, for God does not abandon those who trust Him.

St. Augustine remarked that it was more glorious for God to obtain good out of evil than to create out of nothing: it is greater to convert a sinner by giving him grace than to make a whole universe, Heaven and earth, out of nothing.

It is better to give the tree with its fruits than to offer the fruits alone.

It is the purification of the intellect which prepares for contemplation.

It has been said that if a little learning withdraws a person from religion, great learning brings him back to it.956

Let us remember that false prudence is tin, true acquired prudence is silver, infused prudence is gold, and the inspirations of the gift of counsel are diamonds, of the same order as the divine light. "He that followeth Me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life."1339

She writes: "I see nothing and I see all; certitude is obtained in the darkness;"1166 that is, I see nothing determinate, but I see all the divine perfections united, fused in an ineffable manner in the eminence of the Deity.

depends on the principle formulated by Aristotle and often recalled by St. Thomas: "The terms of language are the signs of our ideas, and our ideas are the similitude of realities.

No one can know the true meaning of the language of spiritual writers if he is unable to explain it theologically; and, on the other hand, no one can know the sublimity of theology if he is ignorant of its relations to mysticism.

Thus talent sometimes wishes to correct genius, as if the eaglet wished to teach the eagle to fly.

Actual grace is constantly offered to us for the accomplishment of the duty of the present moment, just as air comes constantly into our lungs to permit us to breathe.

He humbled Himself... even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names." Phil. 2:8 f.