Great Throughts Treasury

"It is by forgiving that one is forgiven."

"Spiritual people are not perfect people, They are only imperfect people who have put the Lord first."

"There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much."

"Let everyone understand that real love of God does not consist in tear-shedding, nor in that sweetness and tenderness for which usually we long, just because they console us, but in serving God in justice, fortitude of soul and humility."

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family."

"The most significant ailment in the world today is "spiritual deprivation.""

"The word “prayer” is applied to at least four distinct procedures - petition, intercession, adoration, contemplation. Petition is the asking of something for ourselves. Intercession is the asking of something for other people. Adoration is the use of intellect, feeling, will and imagination in making acts of devotion directed towards God in his personal aspect or as incarnated in human form. Contemplation is that condition of alert passivity, in which the soul lays itself open to the divine ground within and without, the immanent and transcendent Godhead."

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

"If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one."

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

"Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science, or eloquence."

"Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love."

"Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given."

"Let everyone sweep in front of his door and the whole world will be clean."

"Love on earth begins at home."

"The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace."

"We can do no great things – only small things with great love."

"Love has a hem to her garment that reaches to the very dust. It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must."

"Often we know the lonely and fail to reach out in love. We may be shy or find it hard to show love. We may; feel that we are being insincere if we try. Then let us accept ourselves as we are - God’s imperfect instruments - and pray that he will use us despite our shortcomings."

"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted are the most terrible poverty."

"I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness."

"How wonderful it is to think that we have all been created for a purpose! We have not come into the world to be a number; we have been created for a purpose, for great things: to love and be loved."

"We draw the circle of our family too small."

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand."

"If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway… You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway."

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless."

"Love makes labour light. Love alone gives value to all things."

"I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God."

"I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?"

"Each one of them is Jesus in disguise."

"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."

"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls."

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work."

"One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody."

"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action"

"Intense love does not measure, it just gives."

"Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house...let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile."

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."

"Peace begins with a smile. "

"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go."

"The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between."

"There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use."

"The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it."

"We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls."

"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of having selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will gain false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten by tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and bluntness make you vulnerable. Be honest and blunt anyway. What you spend years building can be destroyed overnight. Build it anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Even if you live your life, you will die someday. Live your life anyway. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway."

"We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do."

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."