Vincent de Paul Quotes

Charity is the cement which binds Communities to God and persons to one another . . .

If God is the center of your life, no words are necessary. Your mere presence will touch hearts.

We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.

We should spend as much time in thanking God for his benefits as we do in asking him for them.

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.

We must love our neighbor as being made in the image of God and as an object of His love.

Make it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances.

Let us do our duty well; let us go straight to God; let us work to become very humble, very patient, very mortified, and very charitable.

God allows us to give rise to the practice of two beautiful virtues: perseverance, which leads us to attain the goal, and constancy, which helps us to overcome difficulties.

Let us allow God to act; He brings things to completion when we least expect it.

With God's help, you will continue to succeed in your leadership and in your duties, because Our Lord's work is accomplished not so much by the multitude of workers as by the fidelity of the small number whom He calls.

Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.

We cannot better assure our eternal happiness than by living and dying in the service of the poor, in the arms of Providence, and with genuine renouncement of ourselves in order to follow Jesus Christ.

All beginnings are somewhat strange; but we must have patience, and little by little, we shall find things, which at first were obscure, becoming clearer.

One beautiful diamond is worth more than a mountain of stones, and one virtuous act of acquiescence and submission is better than an abundance of good works done for others.

I will always welcome joyfully any opportunity that comes my way to be of service to you

We must be full reservoirs in order to let our water spill out without becoming empty, and we must possess the spirit with which we want them to be animated, for no one can give what he does not have.

There is no act of charity that is not accompanied by justice or that permits us to do more than we reasonably can.

To this end, we should help and support one another and strive for peace and union among ourselves. This is the wine that cheers and strengthens travelers along the narrow path of Jesus Christ.

A doctor who keeps a person from becoming ill deserves more merit than one who cures him.

Put your trust in Him and following His example, always act humbly, graciously, and in good faith.

Oh! how happy the man of means who uses his wealth and his life for the greater glory of God, from whom he has received them!

All comes at the proper time to him who knows how to wait.

God always gives a great blessing to humble beginnings than to those that start with the chiming of bells.

Fear not; calm will follow the storm, and perhaps soon.

We should take as a maxim never to be surprised at current difficulties, no more than at a passing breeze, because with a little patience we shall see them disappear. Time changes everything.

Noise makes no good, good makes no noise.

. . . Our Lord humbles in order to raise up, and allows the suffering of interior and exterior afflictions in order to bring about peace. He often desires some things more than we do, but wants us to merit the grace of accomplishing them by several practices of virtue and to beg for this with many prayers.

Be acted upon rather than active. In this way, God will do through you alone what all men put together could not do without Him.

Let each of us accept the truth of the following statement and try to make it our most fundamental principle: Christ's teaching will never let us down, while worldly wisdom always will. Christ Himself said that this sort of wisdom was like a house with nothing but sand as its foundation, while His own was like a building with solid rock as its foundation.

. . . [I]n the kingdom of charity, one prefers to suffer some inconvenience rather than inconvenience the neighbor.

[Do not] overburden yourself with rules of devotion, but persist in doing well those you have, your daily actions, your work; in a word, let everything revolve around doing well what you are doing.

Even convicts, with whom I have spent some time, are not won over in any other way. Whenever I happened to speak sharply to them, I spoiled everything; on the contrary, when I praised them for their resignation and sympathized with them in their sufferings; when I told them they were fortunate to have their purgatory in this world, when I kissed their chains, showed compassion for their distress, and expressed sorrow for their misfortune, it was then that they listened to me, gave glory to God, and opened themselves to salvation.

Rarely is any good done without difficulty; the devil is too subtle and the world too corrupt not to attempt to nip such a good work in the bud

It is a good sign when He burdens us with [crosses] and we carry them well, but woe to the person who runs away from them, for he will find such heavy ones that they will overwhelm him.

[E]ven if the whole world should rise up to destroy us, nothing will happen except that God, in whom we have put our hope, will allow.

There are good, God-fearing persons who still fall into certain faults, and it is better to bear with them than to be hard on them.

Always be quite simple and sincere and ask God to grant me those two virtues.

Practice humility and patience.

Let us be submissive to Providence, He will see to our affairs in His own time and in His own way

If you grant asylum to so many refugees, your house may be sacked sooner by the soldiers; I see that clearly. The question is, however, whether, because of this danger, you should refuse to practice such a beautiful virtue as charity.

You say you are not happy in the Mission. That, in itself, is not a sign that God does not want you there. Perfect contentment is never to be found, in whatever place and condition one may be. This life is full of annoyances and troubles both of mind and of body; it is a state of continual agitation, which snatches peace of mind from those who think they possess it and eludes those who seek it. Did Our Lord lead an easy life?

Naturally, everyone is disheartened by sharp reprimands, and by the most amiable corrections as well, if they are frequent, immoderate, or given inappropriately.

Since God is satisfied with our good will and honest efforts, let us also be satisfied with the outcome He gives to them, and our actions will never be without good results

do not be surprised by your trials, since the Son of God has chosen them for our salvation.

It is a ruse of the devil, by which he deceives good people, to induce them to do more than they are able, so that they end up not being able to do anything. The spirit of God urges one gently to do the good that can be done reasonably, so that it may be done perseveringly and for a long time.

Indeed, good is not good if one does not suffer in doing it.

Use gentle methods to get whatever good you can from priests and monks who are slaves, as well as from merchants and captives. Resort to severe measures only in extreme cases, for fear lest the hardship they are already enduring in their state of captivity, joined to the strictness you might want to exercise in virtue of your authority, drive them to despair. . . . It is not light they need, but strength, and strength permeates through the external balm of words and good example.

Providence must call us and we must follow it, if we are to go forward confidently.

I have made to God the offering you made to me of your heart and have asked him to unite mine with yours in that of Our Lord.