Quotes from St. Jerome

Preferring to store her money in the stomachs of the needy rather than hide it in a purse.

Everything has its drawbacks, as the man said when his mother-in-law died, and they came down upon him for the funeral expenses.

Let your daughter have first of all the book of Psalms for holiness of heart, and be instructed in the Proverbs of Solomon for her godly life.

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.

When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.

Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.

When I could not see the light with my blind eyes, I blamed not my eyes, but the sun.

Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God.

Nothing gives us a greater idea of our soul, than that God has given us, at the moment of our birth, an angel to take care of it.

My native land is a slave of heathenism, men's god is their belly, and they live only for the present. The richer a man, the holier.

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by telling against ourselves.

Honest speech does not seek secret places.

Vanity is truly the motive power that moves humanity, and it is flattery that greases the wheels.

I am that prodigal son who wasted all the portion entrusted to me by my father. But I have not yet fallen at my father's knees. I have not yet begun to put away from me the enticements of my former riotous living.

I am like the sick sheep that strays from the rest of the flock. Unless the Good Shepherd takes me on His shoulders and carries me back to His fold, my steps will falter, and in the very effort of rising, my feet will give way.

Those who persevere in sin are those who are held in abhorrence by God, but those who abandon the ways of sin are loved by the Lord.

Small minds cannot grasp great subjects.

They talk like angels but they live like men.

There are things in life that are bigger than ourselves. Life is short, live it well.

Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.

Why do you not practice what you preach.

It is not being in Jerusalem, but living a good life there that is praiseworthy.

Action without a name, a 'who' attached to it, is meaningless.

A fat stomach never breeds fine thoughts.