10 quotes
Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
There is a great deal of self-will in the world, but very little genuine independence of character.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
We must have passed through life very unobservantly, if we have never perceived that a man is very much himself what he thinks of others.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
To children is there any happiness which is not also noise?
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
A spiritual life without a very large allowance of disquietude in it is no spiritual life at all. It is but a flattering superstition of self-love.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
The very attempt to be like our dearest Lord is already a well-spring of sweetness within us, flowing with an easy grace over all who come within our reach.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
I find great numbers of moderately good people who think it fine to take scandal. They regard it as a sort of evidence of their own goodness, and of their delicacy of conscience; while in reality it is only a proof either of their inordinate conceit or of their extreme stupidity.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or kind deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they imply also a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
Other things being equal, a person beginning the spiritual life with a taste for reading has a much greater chance both of advancing and of persevering than one who is destitute of such a taste. Experience shows that it is almost equal to a grace. The hardest thing in the world is to think, that is, to think real thought.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)
There is hardly ever a complete silence in our souls. God is whispering to us wellnigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. This is so invariable that we come to believe he is always whispering to us, only that we do not always hear, because of the hurry, noise, and distraction which life causes as it rushes on.
Spiritual Conferences (1859)