Quotes from Fulton J. Sheen

When the "deity" of the other is deflated, either because it is exhausted or because one becomes accustomed to living with a "god" or a "goddess," there is a terrific sense of ennui and boredom.

Better could the stem of a rose support a marble bust than the mind of man bear the false infinity of his own deification.

There, in a place of peace in the lonely abandonment of a cold windswept cave; there, under the floor of the world, He Who is born without a mother in heaven, is born without a father on earth.

reading from St. John Chrysostom that the life of a bishop should be more perfect than the life of a hermit. The reason he gave was that the holiness which the monk preserves in the desert must be preserved by the bishop into the midst of the evil of the world.

This is the beautiful paradox of the Child Who made His mother; the mother, too, was only a child.

hous vivons aux temps des assassins —"we live in days of assassins"—where evil is sought in lives more than good in order to justify a world with a bad conscience.

Sanctity means separation from the spirit of the world, with immersion in the activity of the world. Saints would be in the world, not of it; they would have no public relation boosters to publicize them; they would never ask for money; perhaps the one venture which would stand out most in their lives would be poverty of spirit.

religious leaders have agreed not to disagree and those beliefs for which some of our ancestors would have died they have melted into a spineless Humanism.

There are ultimately only two possible adjustments in life: one is to suit our lives to principles; the other is to suit principles to our lives. "If we do not live as we think, we soon begin to think as we live.

The very fact that a man or woman seeks a new partner is a proof that there never was any love at all. For though sex is replaceable, love is not. Sex is for pleasure; love is for a person. Cows can graze on other pastures, but a person admits of no substitution.

purging trial, fidelities through storm, perseverance through mediocrities, and pursuit of Divine destiny through the allurements of earth.

The method of adjusting moral principles to the way men live is just such a perversion of the due order of things.

A man who makes himself a god must hide; otherwise his false divinity will be unmasked. But God can become a child and talk in parables and never lose His Divinity.

He stands at the door and knocks, but the latch is on the inside, and only we can open it. He has enacted the consecration, but the communion depends upon us; and whether our work will ever be finished depends entirely on how we relive His life and become other Christ's, for His Good Friday and His passion avail us nothing unless we relive it in our own lives.

With the crib seen as a tabernacle and the child as a kind of host, then the home becomes a living temple of God. The sacristan of that sanctuary is the mother, who never permits the tabernacle lamp of faith to go out.

We learn to speak through listening, and we grow in love of God through listening.

relinquish the desire for children and wealth and live the life of 'Vanaprastha,' that is, one retired from the household cares.

Under the guidance of the Spirit every trial enriches the soul... He best heals wounds who has felt a similar wound.

Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: "I am Who am." The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: "I am who am not." Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side. The

Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well.

Another evidence of this same disrespect for rational foundations is the general readiness of the modern mind to accept a statement because of the literary way in which it is couched, or because of the popularity of the one who says it, rather than for the reasons behind the statement.

It is easier to get the attention of the press when one says, as Ibsen4 did, that "two and two make five," than to be orthodox and say that two and two make four.

The priest acts from without, the Holy Spirit from within. We wish one another blessings; He gives blessings. He alone can plant in a heart, by His divine husbandry, the seed that will blossom into a 'new creature in Christ.

Here is the answer, after all these years, to the mysterious words in the Gospel of the Incarnation which stated that Our Blessed Mother laid her "firstborn" in the manger. Did that mean that Our Blessed Mother was to have other children? It certainly did, but not according to the flesh. Our Divine Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was the unique Son of Our Blessed Mother by the flesh. But Our Lady was to have other children, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit!