Pope John XXIII Quotes

17 Sourced Quotes

Learn how to be a policeman, because that cannot be improvised. As regards being pope, you will see later. Anybody can be pope; the proof of this is that I have become one.
Letter to a young boy

Pope John XXIII
[In the universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948] in most solemn form, the dignity of a person is acknowledged to all human beings; and as a consequence there is proclaimed, as a fundamental right, the right of free movement in search for truth and in the attainment of moral good and of justice, and also the right to a dignified life.

Pope John XXIII
The conviction that all men are equal by reason of their natural dignity has been generally accepted. Hence racial discrimination can no longer be justified.

Pope John XXIII
[Peace must be] founded on truth, built according to justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in freedom.

Pope John XXIII
The social progress, order, security and peace of each country are necessarily connected with the social progress, order, security and peace of all other countries.

Pope John XXIII
The representative of the highest spiritual authority of the earth is glad, indeed boasts, of being the son of a humble but robust and honest laborer.

Pope John XXIII
An angel of Paradise, no less, is always beside me, wrapped in everlasting ecstasy on his Lord. So I am ever under the gaze of an angel who protects and prays for me.

Pope John XXIII
From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect. God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way.

Pope John XXIII
I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in.

Pope John XXIII
I live by the mercy of Jesus, to whom I owe everything and from whom I expect everything.

Pope John XXIII
Do not walk through time without leaving worthy evidence of your passage.

Pope John XXIII
O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I would like to be filled with love for You; keep me closely united with You, may my heart be near to Yours. I want to be to You like the apostle John. O Mary of the Rosary, keep me recollected when I say these prayers of yours; bind me forever, with your rosary, to Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed be Jesus, my love..

Pope John XXIII
Relations between States, as between individuals, must be regulated not by armed force, but in accordance with...truth, justice and vigorous and sincere co-operation.

Pope John XXIII
If civil authorities legislate for or allow anything that is contrary to that order and therefore contrary to the will of God, neither the laws made or the authorizations granted can be binding on the consciences of the citizens, since God has more right to be obeyed than man.

Pope John XXIII
Today the universal common good poses problems of world-wide dimensions, which cannot be adequately tackled or solved except by the efforts of public authorities endowed with a wideness of powers, structure and means of the same proportions; that is... on a world-wide basis.

Pope John XXIII
The true and solid peace of nations consists not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone.

Pope John XXIII
One of my favorite phrases that brings me great comfort: We are not on earth as museum keepers, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life and to prepare a glorious future. The Pope is dead. Long live the Pope!

Pope John XXIII