St. Jerome Quotes & Sayings

The scars of others should teach us caution. — St. Jerome

Seek to learn on earth those truths which will remain ever valid in Heaven — St. Jerome

Malice swallows the greatest part of its own venom. — St. Jerome

Neither Britain, a land fertile in tyrants, nor the people of Ireland, knew Moses and the prophets. — St. Jerome

Begin now what you will be hereafter. — St. Jerome

Shun, as you would the plague, a cleric who from being poor has become wealthy, or who, from being nobody has become a celebrity. — St. Jerome

For all riches come from iniquity, and unless one were to lose another could not gain. Hence the common adage seems to me to be very true: The rich man is unjust or the heir of an unjust one. — St. Jerome

If you call [the synagogue] a brothel, a den of vice, the devil's refuge, Satan's fortress, a place to deprave the soul, an abyss of every conceivable disaster or whatever else you will, you are still saying less than it deserves. — St. Jerome

To read without writing is to sleep. — St. Jerome

My speech is too fast; my oration confused; love knows no order. — St. Jerome

Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God. — St. Jerome

It is no fault of Christianity that a hypocrite falls into sin. — St. Jerome

Even while living in the world, the heart of Mary was so filled with motherly tenderness and compassion for men that no-one ever suffered so much for their own pains, as Mary suffered for the pains of her children. — St. Jerome

Strictly speaking, one should not even rightly compare virginity to marriage because you cannot make a comparison between two things if one is good and the other evil. — St. Jerome

A man who is well grounded in the testimonies of the Scripture is the bulwark of the Church. — St. Jerome

Time would fail me were I to try to lay before you in order all the passages in the Holy Scriptures which relate to the efficacy of baptism or to explain the mysterious doctrine of that second birth which though it is our second is yet our first in Christ. — St. Jerome

Athletes as a rule are stronger than their backers; yet the weaker presses the stronger to put forth all his efforts. — St. Jerome

Every day we are changing, every day we are dying, and yet we fancy ourselves eternal. — St. Jerome

Endeavor to have always in your hand a pious book, that with this shield you may defend yourself against bad thoughts. — St. Jerome

When we pray we speak to God;
but when we read, God speaks to us. — St. Jerome

Vanity is truly the motive power that moves humanity, and it is flattery that greases the wheels. — St. Jerome

Whoever eats the Lamb outside this House is profane. — St. Jerome

To ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ. — St. Jerome

For the preservation of chastity, an empty and rumbling stomach and fevered lungs are indispensable. — St. Jerome

The most base of men can be civilized through suffering. — St. Jerome

Love knows nothing of order. — St. Jerome

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting. — St. Jerome

And as regards Adam and Eve we must maintain that before the fall they were virgins in Paradise: but after they sinned, and were cast out of Paradise, they were immediately married. — St. Jerome

Let us learn upon earth those things which can call us to heaven. — St. Jerome

Preferring to store her money in the stomachs of the needy rather than hide it in a purse. — St. Jerome

No one loves to tell of scandal except to him who loves to hear it. Learn, then, to rebuke and check the detracting tongue by showing that you do not listen to it with pleasure. — St. Jerome

They talk like angels but they live like men. — St. Jerome

Matrimony is always a vice, all that can be done is to excuse it and sanctify it; therefore it was made a religious sacrament. — St. Jerome

Marriage is good for those who are afraid to sleep alone at night. — St. Jerome

Make knowledge of the Scripture your love ... Live with them, meditate on them, make them the sole object of your knowledge and inquiries. — St. Jerome

Honest speech does not seek secret places. — St. Jerome

The truly miserable have a timbre in their voices strong enough to erase smiles from the faces and souls of the contented. — St. Jerome

If Christ did not want to dismiss the Jews without food in the desert for fear that they would collapse on the way, it was to teach us that it is dangerous to try to get to heaven without the Bread of Heaven. — St. Jerome

A false interpretation of Scripture causes that the gospel of the Lord becomes the gospel of man, or, which is worse, of the devil. — St. Jerome

Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. — St. Jerome

Woman is the gate of the devil, the road to iniquity, the sting of the scorpion, in a word, a dangerous species. — St. Jerome

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by telling against ourselves. — St. Jerome

Either we must speak as we dress, or dress as we speak. Why do we profess one thing and display another? The tongue talks of chastity, but the whole body reveals impurity. — St. Jerome

If there is but little water in the stream, it is the fault, not of the channel, but of the source. — St. Jerome

Why do you not practice what you preach. — St. Jerome

Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business. — St. Jerome

Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved. — St. Jerome

Catch, then, O catch the transient hour; Improve each moment as it flies! — St. Jerome

The Roman world is in collapse but we do not bend our neck. — St. Jerome

To perceive is to categorize, to conceptualize is to categorize, to learn is to form categories, to make decisions is to categorize. — St. Jerome

Small minds cannot grasp great subjects. — St. Jerome

Nothing gives us a greater idea of our soul, than that God has given us, at the moment of our birth, an angel to take care of it. — St. Jerome

[O]pulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessors. — St. Jerome

There are things in life that are bigger than ourselves. Life is short, live it well. — St. Jerome

A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept. — St. Jerome

No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. — St. Jerome

We must love Christ and always seek Christ's embraces. Then everything difficult will seem easy. — St. Jerome

If a soul is not clothed with the teachings of the Church he cannot merit to have Jesus seated in him. — St. Jerome

The eating of meat was unknown up to the big flood, but since the flood they have put the strings and stinking juices of animal meat into our mouths, just as they threw in front of the grumbling sensual people in the desert. Jesus Christ, who appeared when the time had been fulfilled, has again joined the end with the beginning, so that it is no longer allowed for us to eat animal meat. — St. Jerome

Action without a name, a 'who' attached to it, is meaningless. — St. Jerome

What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way. — St. Jerome

No one cares to speak to an unwilling listener. An arrow never lodges in a stone: often it recoils upon the sender of it. — St. Jerome

Playing keys is more than just knowing what notes to play. You have to know about the buttons too. — St. Jerome

Sometimes the character of the mistress is inferred from the dress of her maids. — St. Jerome

The best advice that I can give you is this: Church-traditions- especially when they do not run counter to the faith- are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down ... The traditions which have been handed down should be regarded as apostolic laws. — St. Jerome

Martyrdom does not consist only in dying for one's faith. Martyrdom also consists in serving God with love and purity of heart every day of one's life — St. Jerome

They please the world most, who please Christ least. — St. Jerome

Haste is of the Devil. — St. Jerome

Failure is the inspiration of tomorrow's entrepreneurs. — St. Jerome

Nothing is hard for lovers, no labor is difficult for those who wish it. — St. Jerome

Music to me is a voice, my voice, it's my way of expressing what colours can I bring in, what emotions, what feel. What ideas can I bring out from these instruments that would make this song come alive. — St. Jerome

It is not being in Jerusalem, but living a good life there that is praiseworthy. — St. Jerome

Let your daughter have first of all the book of Psalms for holiness of heart, and be instructed in the Proverbs of Solomon for her godly life. — St. Jerome

No created mind, no created heart, no human force is capable of knowing how much love the Heart of Mary had for the Lord. — St. Jerome

Small minds can never handle great themes. — St. Jerome

True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks. — St. Jerome

The fact is that my native land is a prey to barbarism, that in it men's only God is their belly, that they live only for the present, and that the richer a man is the holier he is held to be. — St. Jerome

To saints their very slumber is a prayer. — St. Jerome

Instead of speaking saintly words we must act them. — St. Jerome

That rain is the best which falls steadily on the earth. A sudden and excessive downpour ruins the fields. — St. Jerome

That clergyman soon becomes an object of contempt who being often asked out to dinner never refuses to go. — St. Jerome

Love is not to be purchased, and affection has no price. — St. Jerome

Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world. — St. Jerome

The laws of Caesar are one thing, those of Christ, another. Papinianus judges one way, our Paul another. — St. Jerome

It is our part to seek,
His to grant what we ask;
ours to make a beginning,
His to bring it to completion;
ours to offer what we can,
His to finish what we cannot. — St. Jerome

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best. — St. Jerome

The line, often adopted by strong men in controversy, of justifying the means by the end. — St. Jerome

Among us, what is not allowed to women is equally not allowed to men. — St. Jerome

If then you remain constant in faith in the face of trial, the Lord will give you peace and rest for a time in this world, and forever in the next. — St. Jerome

Even brute beasts and wandering birds do not fall into the same traps or nets twice. — St. Jerome

Wine is the first weapon that devils use in attacking the young — St. Jerome

Keep always busy so that the devil will find you always engaged. — St. Jerome

A fat stomach never breeds fine thoughts. — St. Jerome

It is easier to mend neglect than to quicken love. — St. Jerome

He is rich enough who does not want bread. — St. Jerome

If it is good not to touch a woman, then it is bad to touch a woman always and in every case. — St. Jerome

I praise wedlock, I praise marital union, but only because they produce me virgins. — St. Jerome

So valuable to heaven is the dignity of the human soul that every member of the human race has a guardian angel from the moment the person begins to be. — St. Jerome

Always be doing something worthwhile; then the devil will always find you busy. — St. Jerome

An ethic is not an ethic, and a value not a value without somesacrifice for it. Something given up, something not gained. — St. Jerome