Quotes from Thérèse de Lisieux

All God asks of you is good will. From the top of the ladder He looks lovingly upon you, and soon, touched by your fruitless efforts, He will Himself come down, and, taking you in His Arms, will carry you to His Kingdom never again to leave Him. But should you cease to raise your foot, you will be left for long on the earth.

Each time that my enemy would provoke me to combat, I behave as a gallant soldier. I know that a duel is an act of cowardice, and so, without once looking him in the face, I turn my back on the foe, then I hasten to my Saviour, and vow that I am ready to shed my blood in witness of my belief in Heaven.

He has never inspired me with any desire and left it unsatisfied, and that is why I have always found His bitter chalice full of sweetness.

Most of us pass our lives away eating the husks of life. Within them, beneath the rind, is a sweeter fruit than ever we have tasted. How shall we find it unless the rind is peeled away by Wisdom greater than our own, by a Love whose ways are strange and bewildering to us.

I must walk right up to my last moment.

We must despise all these temptations and pay no attention whatsoever to them.

Our Lord has deigned to make me understand that by simple obedience I shall please Him best.

Time is thy barque, and not thy dwelling-place.

Our Lord made me understand that the only true glory is that which lasts for ever; and that to attain it there is no necessity to do brilliant deeds, but rather to hide from the eyes of others, and even from oneself, so that "the left hand knows not what the right hand does."[1]

yet I think Our Lord made use of it to show me that a soul in the state of grace has nothing to fear from the devil, who is a coward, and will even fly from the gaze of a little child.

Nothing whatsoever but the love of Jesus could have made me face these difficulties and others which followed, for I had to purchase my happiness by heavy trials.

See how this evening the tree-tops are gilded by the setting sun. So likewise my soul appears to you all shining and golden because it is exposed to the rays of Love.

I wasn't too good at playing games, but I did love reading very much and would have spent my life at it. I had human angels, fortunately for me, to guide me in the choice of the books which, while being entertaining, nourished both my heart and my mind.

Just one such faint spark can set the whole world on fire.

to dedicate oneself as a Victim of Love is not to be dedicated to sweetness and consolations; it is to offer oneself to all that is painful and bitter, because Love lives only by sacrifice . . . and the more we would surrender ourselves to Love, the more we must surrender ourselves to suffering.

El amor jamás encuentra pretexto de imposibilidad porque cree que todo lo puede y le conviene». La prudencia humana, por el contrario, tiembla a cada paso y, por decirlo así, no se atreve a apoyar el pie.

The life of every missionary abounds in crosses," said Théophane Vénard. And again: "True happiness consists in suffering, and in order to live we must die.

I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2:20).

Our Father, St. John of the Cross, says with great truth: "All good things have come unto me, since I no longer sought them for myself.

Love lives only by sacrifice

It is for us to console our Lord, and not for Him to console us.

Love will consume us only in the measure of our self-surrender.

In Heaven, God will do all I desire, because on earth I have never done my own will.

Love can do all things. The most impossible tasks seem to it easy and sweet. You know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them. What, then, have we to fear?