Teresa of Ávila - The Interior Castle

32 Sourced Quotes

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The important thing is not to think much but to love much; do, then, whatever most arouses you to love.

Teresa of Ávila
Lord, how you afflict your lovers! But everything is small in comparison to what you give them afterwards.

Teresa of Ávila
Souls who do not practice prayer are like people whose limbs are paralyzed.

Teresa of Ávila
The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.

Teresa of Ávila
The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave - caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition - cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner.

Teresa of Ávila
Discontent with this world gives such a painful longing to quit it that, if the heart finds comfort, it is solely from the thought that God wishes it to remain here in banishment.

Teresa of Ávila
I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible.

Teresa of Ávila
In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree.

Teresa of Ávila
It is encouraging to see that trials which seemed to us impossible to submit to are possible to others, and that they bear them sweetly. Their flight makes us try to soar, like nestlings taught by the elder birds, who, though they cannot fly far at first, little by little imitate their parents.

Teresa of Ávila
Souls without prayer are like bodies, palsied and lame, having hands and feet they cannot use.

Teresa of Ávila
Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions - which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.

Teresa of Ávila
I once heard a spiritual man say that he was not so much astonished at the things done by a soul in mortal sin as at the things not done by it. May God, in his mercy, deliver us from such great evil, for there is nothing in the whole of our lives that so thoroughly deserves to be called evil as this, since it brings endless and eternal evils in its train.

Teresa of Ávila
Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He has told us, He created us in His own image and likeness.

Teresa of Ávila
What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we will or no, must ever bear us company?

Teresa of Ávila
However many years life might last, no one could ever wish for a better friend than God.

Teresa of Ávila
True perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbour, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be.

Teresa of Ávila
While the soul is in mortal sin, nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward, since they do not proceed from God as their first principle, and by Him alone is our virtue real virtue.

Teresa of Ávila
Anyone who has the habit of speaking before God's majesty as if he were speaking to a slave, careless about how he is speaking, and saying whatever comes into his head and whatever he's learned from saying prayers at other times, in my opinion is not praying. Please, God, may no Christian pray in this way.

Teresa of Ávila
What value is there in faith without works? And what are they worth if they are not united to the merits of Jesus Christ, our only good?

Teresa of Ávila
It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature nor our origin.

Teresa of Ávila
Humility must always be doing its work like a bee making its honey in the hive: without humility all will be lost.

Teresa of Ávila
To seek God within ourselves avails us far more than to look for Him amongst creatures.

Teresa of Ávila
God speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways. Sometimes he calls souls by means of sickness or troubles, or by some truth He teaches them during prayer, for tepid as they may be in seeking Him, yet God holds them very dear.

Teresa of Ávila
A soul which gives itself to prayer, either much or little, should on no account be kept within narrow bounds.

Teresa of Ávila
We cannot be sure if we are loving God, although we may have good reasons for believing that we are, but we can know quite well if we are loving our neighbor. And be certain that, the farther advanced you find you are in this, the greater the love you will have for God.

Teresa of Ávila
God, wishing His elect to realize their own misery, often temporarily withdraws His favours: no more is needed to prove to us in a very short time what we really are.

Teresa of Ávila
When I think of myself my mind cannot soar to higher things but is like a bird with broken wings.

Teresa of Ávila
What misery to live in this world! We are like men whose enemies are at the door, who must not lay aside their arms, even while sleeping or eating, and are always in dread lest the foe should enter the fortress by some breach in the walls. O my Lord and my all! How canst thou wish us to prize such a wretched existence?

Teresa of Ávila
What peace can we hope to find elsewhere if we have none within us

Teresa of Ávila
Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don't remember that we are creatures made in the image of God. We don't understand the great secrets hidden inside of us.

Teresa of Ávila