St. Philip Neri said.....

[Denise]

"We ought to hope for and love the glory of God by means of a good life."

[Denise]

"St. Peter and the other apostles and apostolic men, seeing the Son of God born in poverty, and then living so absolutely without anything, that He had nowhere to lay His Head, and contemplating Him dead and naked on a cross, stripped themselves also of all things, and took the road of the evangelical counsels."

[Denise]

"Nothing unites the soul to God more closely, or breeds contempt of the world sooner, than being harassed and distressed."

[Denise]

"In this life there is no purgatory; it is either hell or paradise; for to him who serves God truly, every trouble and infirmity turns into consolations, and through all kinds of trouble he has a paradise within himself even in this world; and he who does not serve God truly, and gives himself up to sensuality, has one hell in this world, and another in the next."

[Denise]

"To get good from reading the Lives of the Saints, and other spiritual books, we ought not to read out of curiosity, or skimmingly, but with pauses; and when we feel ourselves warmed, we ought not to pass on, but to stop and follow up the spirit which is stirring in us, and when we feel it no longer then to pursue our reading."

[Denise]

"To begin and end well, devotion to our Blessed Lady, the Mother of God, is nothing less than indispensable."

[Denise]

"We have no time to go to sleep here, for Paradise was not made for poltroons."

poltroons are cowards

[Denise]

"We must have confidence in God, who is what He always has been, and we must not be disheartened because things turn out contrary to us."

[Denise]

"Men should not change from a good state of life to another, although it may be better, without taking grave counsel."

[Denise]

"Let every one stay at home, that is, within himself, and sit in judgment on his own actions, without going abroad to investigate and criticize those of others."

[Denise]

"The true servants of God endure life and desire death."

[Denise]

"There is not a finer thing on earth, than to make a virtue of necessity."

[Denise]

"To preserve our cheerfulness amid sicknesses and troubles, is a sign of a right and good spirit."

[Denise]

"A man should not ask tribulations of God, presuming on his being able to bear them; there should be the greatest possible caution in this matter, for he who bears what God sends him daily does not do a small thing."

St. Therese' said basically the same thing

[Denise]

"They who have been exercised in the service of God for a long time, may in their prayers imagine all sorts of insults offered to them, such as blows, wounds, and the like, and so in order to imitate Christ by their charity, may accustom their hearts beforehand to forgive real injuries when they come."