Pope John XXIII Quotes & Sayings

The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection. — Pope John XXIII

Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said. — Pope John XXIII

Before everything else, fidelity to the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Jesus did not found several churches, but one single Church. — Pope John XXIII

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

The council now beginning rises in the Church like the daybreak, a forerunner of most splendid light. — Pope John XXIII

If God created shadows it was to better emphasise the light. — 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 am able to follow my own death step by step. Now I move softly towards the end. — Pope John XXIII

Mankind is a great, an immense family ... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas. — Pope John XXIII

It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope. — Pope John XXIII

The deposit of the faith is one thing ... the way it is expressed is another. — 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

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. — 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

Born poor, but of honored and humble people, I am particularly proud to die poor. — Pope John XXIII

Justice comes before charity. — Pope John XXIII

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father. — Pope John XXIII

Every time I hear anyone speak of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or of the Blessed Sacrament I feel an indescribable joy. It is as if a wave of precious memories, sweet affections and joyful hopes swept over my poor person, making me tremble with happiness and filling my soul with tenderness. These are loving appeals from Jesus who wants me wholeheartedly there, at the source of all goodness, his Sacred Heart, throbbing mysteriously behind the Eucharistic veils ... I love to repeat today 'Sweet Heart of my Jesus, make me love You more and more.' — Pope John XXIII

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

The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world. — Pope John XXIII

There is a common belief that under modern conditions peace cannot be assured except on the basis of an equal balance of armaments ... [but] true and lasting peace among nations cannot consist in the possession of an equal supply of armaments but only in mutual trust. — Pope John XXIII

The family is the first essential cell of human society. — 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

Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways, women, gambling, and farming. My family chose the slowest one. — Pope John XXIII

To keep me from sin and straying from Him, God has used devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. My life vows destined to be spent in the light irradiating from the tabernacle, and it is to the Heart of Jesus that I dare go for the solution of all my problems — Pope John XXIII

When I eat alone I feel like a seminarian being punished. I tried it for one week and I was not comfortable. Then I searched through Sacred Scripture for something saying I had to eat alone. I found nothing, so I gave it up and it's much better now. — Pope John XXIII

I have looked into your eyes with my eyes. I have put my heart near your heart. — Pope John XXIII

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

The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular. — Pope John XXIII

We supplicate all rulers not to remain deaf to the cry of mankind. Let them do everything in their power to save peace. By so doing they will spare the world the horrors of a war that would have disastrous consequences, such as nobody can foresee. — Pope John XXIII

Never Hesitate to hold out your hand; never hesitate to accept the outstretched hand of another. — Pope John XXIII

O Jesus, come back into our society, our family life, our souls and reign there as our peaceful Sovereign. Enlighten with the splendor of faith and the charity of Your tender heart the souls of those who work for the good of the people, for Your poor. Impart to them Your own spirit, a spirit of discipline, order and gentleness, preserving the flame of enthusiasm ever alight in their hearts ... May that day come very soon, when we shall see You restored to the center of civic life, borne on the shoulders of Your joyful people. — Pope John XXIII

See everything, overlook a great deal, correct a little. — Pope John XXIII

What unites us, is much greater than what divides us. — Pope John XXIII

Listen to everything, forget much, correct little. — Pope John XXIII

Here I am at the end of the road and at the top of the heap. — Pope John XXIII

Every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity. — Pope John XXIII

A peaceful man does more good than a learned one. — Pope John XXIII

In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 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

Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfullfilled potential. — Pope John XXIII

You must know that it is by the state of the lavatory that a family is judged. — Pope John XXIII

Whoever has a heart full of love always has something to give. — Pope John XXIII

The feelings of my smallness and my nothingness always kept me good company. — Pope John XXIII

The whole world is my family. — Pope John XXIII

Anybody can be Pope; the proof of this is that I have become one. — Pope John XXIII

It is now for the Catholic Church to bend herself to her work with calmness and generosity. It is for you to observe her with renewed and friendly attention. — Pope John XXIII

The thought of the presence of God and the spirit of worship will in all my actions have as their immediate object Jesus, God and man, really present in the most holy Eucharist. The spirit of sacrifice, of humiliation, of scorn for self in the eyes of men, will be illuminated, supported and strengthened by the constant thought of Jesus, humiliated and despised in the Blessed Sacrament — Pope John XXIII

The mark of Cain is stamped upon our foreheads. Across the centuries, our brother Abel was lain in blood which we drew, and shed tears we caused by forgetting Thy love. Forgive us, Lord, for the curse we falsely attributed to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we knew not what we did. — Pope John XXIII

The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist. — 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

Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. We must always remember this. The actual words matter less. — Pope John XXIII

I am made to tremble and I fear! — 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 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

We deem it opportune to remind our children of their duty to take an active part in public life and to contribute toward the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own political community. They should endeavor, therefore, in the light of their Christian faith and led by love, to insure that the various institutions - whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose - should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous man's perfecting of himself in both the natural order and the supernatural.... Every believer in this world of ours must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying leaven amidst his fellow men. And he will be this all the more perfectly, the more closely he lives in communion with God in the intimacy of his own soul — Pope John XXIII