Quotes by Teresa of Avila

“I am quite sure I am more afraid of people who are themselves terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself.”

“If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies.”

“The devil frequently fills our thoughts with great schemes, so that instead of putting our hands to what work we can do to serve our Lord, we may rest satisfied with wishing to perform impossibilit...”

“...Since in the centre of the soul there is a mansion reserved for God Himself...”

“Love turns work into rest.”

“It is of great importance, when we begin to practise prayer, not to let ourselves be frightened by our own thoughts.”

“All the trials we endure cannot be compared to these interior battles.”

“I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, or such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in Him. This was in no s...”

“O infinite goodness of my God! It is thus that I seem to see both myself and Thee. O Joy of the angels, how I long, when I think of this, to be wholly consumed in love for Thee! How true it is that...”

“Reflect carefully on this, for it is so important that I can hardly lay too much stress on it. Fix your eyes on the Crucified and nothing else will be of much importance to you.”

“. . . you must not build upon foundations of prayer and contemplation alone, for, unless you strive after the virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs.”

“Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.”

“Mental prayer is, as I see it, simply a friendly intercourse and frequent solitary conversation with Him who, as we know, loves us.”

“But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered. As I read, I began to call them together again and, as it were, laid a bait for my soul”

“I cannot think why we should be astonished at all the evils which exist in the Church, when those who ought to be models on which all may pattern their virtues are annulling the work wrought in the...”

“You must know that weather or not you are practicing mental prayer has nothing to do with keeping your lips closed. If, while I am speaking with God, I am fully conscious of doing so, and if this i...”

“Give me, if you will, prayers;Or let me know dryness,An abudance of devotion,Or if not, then barrenness.In you alone, Sovereign Majesty,I find my peace,What do you want of me?Yours I am, fo ryou I ...”

“Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, all things are passing, God is unchanging. Patience gains all; nothing is lacking to those who have God: God alone is sufficient.”

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours,Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ's compassion to the worldYours are the feet with which he is to ...”

“For if the will has nothing to employ it and love has no present object with which to busy itself, the soul finds itself without either support or occupation, its solitude and aridity cause it grea...”