Saint Francis Quotes & Sayings

Objections to Christianity ... are phrased in words, but that does not mean that they are really a matter of language and analysis and argument. Words are tokens of the will. If something stronger than language were available then we would use it. But by the same token, words in defense of Christianity miss the mark as well: they are a translation into the dispassionate language of argument of something that resides far deeper in the caverns of volition, of commitment. Perhaps this is why Saint Francis, so the story goes, instructed his followers to "preach the Gospel always, using words if necessary." It is not simply and straightforwardly wrong to make arguments in the defense of the Christian faith, but it is a relatively superficial activity: it fails to address the core issues. — Alan Jacobs

By turning your eyes on God in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with God. Begin all your prayers in the presence of God. — Saint Francis De Sales

There was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust. — Saint Francis De Sales

By giving yourself to God, You not only receive Himself in exchange, but eternal life as well. — Saint Francis De Sales

The recollection of an injury is ... a rusty arrow and poison for the soul. — Francis Of Paola

He who stays not in his littleness, loses his greatness. — Saint Francis De Sales

We have freedom to do good or evil; yet to make choice of evil, is not to use, but to abuse our freedom. — Saint Francis De Sales

Be not miserable about what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father, who cares for you today, will care for you tomorrow. — Saint Francis De Sales

Since God often sends us inspirations by means of His angels, we should frequently return our aspirations to him by means of the same messengers. — Saint Francis De Sales

One form of prayer moves us particularly to take up the task of evangelization and to seek the good of others: it is the prayer of intercession. Let us peer for a moment into the heart of Saint Paul, to see what his prayer was like. It was full of people: " ... I constantly pray with you in every one of my prayers for all of you ... because I hold you in my heart" (Phil 1:4, 7). Here we see that intercessory prayer does not divert us from true contemplation, since authentic contemplation always has a place for others. — Pope Francis

In everything, love simplicity. — Saint Francis De Sales

To live according to the spirit is to love according to the spirit. — Saint Francis De Sales

All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be. — Saint Francis De Sales

Be who you are and do that well. — Saint Francis De Sales

There is nothing as strong as tenderness, And nothing as tender as true strength. — Saint Francis De Sales

He who complains, sins. — Saint Francis De Sales

well-meaning Christians almost killed the faith eight hundred years ago — Jon M. Sweeney

Hell is full of good intentions and wills. — Saint Francis De Sales

Faith fills a man with love for the beauty of its truth, with faith in the truth of its beauty — Saint Francis De Sales

Those who pray from the heart do not think about the prayer they are saying, but about the God to whom they pray. — Saint Francis De Sales

If we say a little it is easy to add, but having said too much it is hard to withdraw and never can it be done so quickly as to hinder the harm of our success. — Saint Francis De Sales

I swear on St. Francis, the patron saint of all animals."
Seeing Poppy's hesitation, Beatrix added enthusiastically, "If a band of pirates kidnapped me and took me to their ship and threatened to make me walk the plank over a shiver of starving sharks unless I told them your secret, I still wouldn't tell it. If I were tied by a villain and thrown before a herd of stampeding horses all shod in iron, and the only way to keep from being trampled was to tell the villain your secret, I - — Lisa Kleypas

Consider the pains which martyrs have endured, and think how even now many people are bearing afflictions beyond all measure greater than yours, and say, "Of a truth my trouble is comfort, my torments are but roses as compared to those whose life is a continual death, without solace, or aid or consolation, borne down with a weight of grief tenfold greater than mine." — Saint Francis De Sales

Chastity is the lily of virtues, and makes men almost equal to Angels. Everything is beautiful in accordance with its purity. Now the purity of man is chastity, which is called honesty, and the observance of it, honor and also integrity; and its contrary is called corruption; in short, it has this peculiar excellence above the other virtues, that it preserves both soul and body fair and unspotted. — Saint Francis De Sales

There is nothing small in the service of God. — Saint Francis De Sales

Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary. ~Saint Francis — Author Lynn Donovan

God requires a faithful fulfillment of the merest trifle given us to do, rather than the most ardent aspiration to things to which we are not called. — Saint Francis De Sales

One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser; for, ... the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence. — Saint Francis De Sales

You can attract more bees with a spoonful of sugar than a cupful of vinegar. — Saint Francis De Sales

We are sometimes so busy being good angels that we neglect to be good men and women. — Saint Francis De Sales

O my child, bethink you that just as the bee, having gathered heaven's dew and earth's sweetest juices from amid the flowers, carries it to her hive; so the Priest, having taken the Saviour, God's Own Son, Who came down from Heaven, the Son of Mary, Who sprang up as earth's choicest flower, from the Altar, feeds you with that Bread of Sweetness and of all delight. — Saint Francis De Sales

When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth's sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food. — Saint Francis De Sales

Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily. — Saint Francis De Sales

But in disclaiming the dead, you are yourself disclaimed by the dead. If you are not prepared to blush for Alexander the Sixth, it is childishly inconsistent to take pride in the memory of Saint Francis. — Ronald Knox

Have patience to walk with short steps until you have wings to fly. — Saint Francis De Sales

Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends' embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce ... Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too. — Sarah Waters

Mount Calvary is the academy of love. — Saint Francis De Sales

I have made a pact with my tongue, not to speak when my heart is disturbed. — Saint Francis De Sales

Let us be what God likes, so long as we are His, and let us not be what we want to be, if it is against his intention. — Saint Francis De Sales

And when children begin to use their reason, fathers and mothers should take great pains to fill their hearts with the fear of God. This the good Queen Blanche did most earnestly by St. Louis, her son: witness her oft-repeated words, "My son, I would sooner see you die than guilty of a mortal sin;" words which sank so deeply into the saintly monarch's heart, that he himself said there was no day on which they did not recur to his mind, and strengthen him in treading God's ways. — Saint Francis De Sales

Do not complain then of your poverty, my daughter, - we only complain of that which is unwelcome, and if poverty is unwelcome to you, you are no longer poor in spirit. — Saint Francis De Sales

We do not very often come across opportunities for exercising strength, magnanimity, or magnificence; but gentleness, temperance, modesty, and humility, are graces which ought to colour everything we do. There may be virtues of a more exalted mould, but ... these are the most continually called for in daily life. — Saint Francis De Sales

Others too would occasionally entertain and privately express such doubts; though we all had been most solemnly warned by the cruel murder of Saint Francis. — Maria Monk

Today is [the feast of] Santa Rita, Patron Saint of impossible things - but this seems impossible: let us ask of her this grace, this grace that all, all, all people would do good and that we would encounter one another in this work, which is a work of creation, like the creation of the Father. A work of the family, because we are all children of God, all of us, all of us! And God loves us, all of us! May Santa Rita grant us this grace, which seems almost impossible. Amen. — Pope Francis

We need to think long and hard about sanity, a word most of us cling to with a steel grip. Does fear of being regarded by others as insane confine me in a cage of "responsible" behavior that limits my freedom and cripples my ability to love? And is it in fact such a wonderful thing to be regarded as sane? After all, the chief administrator of the Holocaust, Adolph Eichmann, was declared "quite sane" by the psychiatrists who examined him before his trial in Jerusalem. Surely the same psychiatrists would have found Saint Basil, Saint Theodore and Saint Xenia all insane - and Saint Francis, and that most revered of all mad men, the Son of Man, the Savior, Jesus of Nazareth. — Jim Forest

Humility makes our lives acceptable to God, meekness makes us acceptable to men. — Saint Francis De Sales

The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not "What a lovely sermon!" but "I will do something." — Saint Francis De Sales

Saint John Paul II, pray for us and especially for our youth. — Pope Francis

I pity the village where no one is a saint, but I also pity the village where everyone is a saint! — Nikos Kazantzakis

What St. Francis and St. Dominic have done, that, by God's grace, I will do. — Saint Ignatius

Every moment comes to us pregnant with a command from God, only to pass on and plunge into eternity, there to remain forever what we have made of it. — Saint Francis De Sales

True humility scarcely ever utters words of humility. — Saint Francis De Sales

You learn to love by loving. — Saint Francis De Sales

One can look at a plumber, a labourer, and say without a great sense of irony, 'He is a man, capable of the same heroism as Admiral Nelson or Saint Francis of Assisi.' But no one looks at a woman and says, 'She is a woman, she is capable of the same heroism as Lady Godiva or Anne Askew.' Our heroines are separated from us. So instead of trying to make Man accept us as daughters of heroism, we must raise all women to the level of heroines. — Kerry Greenwood

Work hard every day at increasing your purity of heart, which consists in appraising things and weighing them in the balance of God's will. — Saint Francis De Sales

Do not be ashamed of being poor, or of asking alms. Receive what is given you with humility, and accept a refusal meekly. Frequently call to mind Our Lady's journey into Egypt with her Holy Child, and of all the poverty, contempt and suffering they endured. If you follow their example you will indeed be rich amid your poverty. — Saint Francis De Sales

Strive to see God in all things without exception. Do not smother yourself ... If you start smothering yourself with a host of cares and longings and wishes ... you will be disabling yourself from serving God with all your heart. — Saint Francis De Sales

He prays well who is so absorbed with God that he does not know he is praying. — Saint Francis De Sales

A heart-memory is better than a mere head-memory. Better to carry away a little of the love of Christ in our souls, than if we were able to repeat every word of every sermon we ever heard. — Saint Francis De Sales

Do not desire crosses, unless you have borne well those laid on you; it is an abuse to long after martyrdom while unable to bear an insult patiently. — Saint Francis De Sales

To be pleased at correction and reproofs shows that one loves the virtues which are contrary to those faults for which he is corrected and reproved. And, therefore, it is a great sign of advancement in perfection. — Saint Francis De Sales

There's love and there's romantic love. The Greeks had different words for different kinds of love. And we just got "love." I don't know what you would call the other kinds - maybe brotherly love, Christian love, the love of Saint Francis, love of everyone and everything. Then there's romantic love, which, by and large, is a pain in the ass, a kind of trauma. — John Maus

What is a saint supposed to do, if not convert wolves? — Umberto Eco

Let the enemy rage at the gate; let him knock, pound, scream, howl; let him do his worst. We know for certain that he cannot enter our soul except by the door of our consent. — Saint Francis De Sales

One of the greatest sermons ever pronounced on missionary work is this simple thought attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: 'Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.' Opportunities to do so are all around us. Do not miss them by waiting too long on the road to Damascus. — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

One of the most evil dispositions possible is that which satirizes and turns everything to ridicule. God abhors this vice, and has sometimes punished it in a marked manner — Saint Francis De Sales

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time. — Saint Francis De Sales

Saint Francis de Salle, not the real Saint Francis with the cute birds and animals, wrote that in his book Introduction to the Devout Life, which talked about how bad sex was in four large volumes. It earned Francis here a sainthood. All I can say is, I am glad I'm not Christian. For us Muslims, we just stone adulterers to death, which is much more humane than guilt. — Rabih Alameddine

A good discourse is that from which nothing can be retrenched without cutting into the quick. — Saint Francis De Sales

Obedience is a consecration of the heart, chastity of the body, and poverty of all worldly goods to the Love and Service of God. Blessed indeed are the obedient, for God will never permit them to go astray. — Saint Francis De Sales

I have the same opinion of dances that physicians have of mushrooms: the best of them are good for nothing. — Saint Francis De Sales

Without a doubt, one of the things which keeps us from attaining perfection is our tongue. When one has reached the point of no longer committing faults in speech, he has surely reached perfection, as was said by the Holy Spirit. The worst defect in talking is talking too much. Hence, in speech be brief and virtuous, brief and gentle, brief and simple, brief and charitable, brief and amiable. — Saint Francis De Sales

Obedience is a virtue of so excellent a nature, that Our Lord was pleased to mark its observance upon the whole course of His life; thus He often says, He did not come to do His Own will, but that of His Heavenly Father. — Saint Francis De Sales

Small yet strong in the love of God, like Saint Francis of Assisi, all of us, as Christians, are called to watch over
and protect the fragile world in which we live, and all its peoples. — Pope Francis

Those who commit these types of scandals are guility of the spiritual equivalent of murder, but I, here among you to prevent something far worst for you. While those who give scandal are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder, those who take scandal- who allow scandals to destroy faith- are guilty of spiritual suicide. — Saint Francis De Sales

[Francis of Assisi was one of the] signal figures who are catalysts for rapid change — Jon M. Sweeney

So many have come to me that I might serve them, leaving me no time to think of myself. However, I assure you that I do feel deep down within me, God be praised. — Saint Francis De Sales

When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence. — Saint Francis De Sales

It is right that you should begin again every day. There is no better way to complete the spiritual life than to be ever beginning it over again. — Saint Francis De Sales

Christmas Eve Saint Francis and Saint Benedight Blesse this house from wicked wight; From the night-mare and the goblin, That is hight good fellow Robin: Keep it from all evil spirits, Fairies, weezels, rats, and ferrets: From curfew time To the next prime. — Thomas Cartwright

Doing little things with a strong desire to please God makes them really great. — Saint Francis De Sales

The state of marriage is one that requires more virtue and constancy than any other; it is a perpetual exercise in mortification. — Saint Francis De Sales

Be neat, Philothea; let nothing be negligent about you. It is a kind of contempt of those with whom we converse, to frequent their company in uncomely apparel; but, at the same time, avoid all affectation, vanity, curiosity, or levity in your dress. Keep yourself always, as much as possible, on the side of plainness and modesty, which, without doubt, is the greatest ornament of beauty, and the best excuse for the want of it. — Saint Francis De Sales

Charity and devotion differ no more, the one from the other, than the flame from the fire. — Saint Francis De Sales

Humor is the foundation of reconciliation. — Saint Francis De Sales

Is it not a great temptation to be so valiant in imagination and so cowardly in execution? — Saint Francis De Sales

It is not those who commit the least faults who are the most holy, but those who have the greatest courage, the greatest generosity, the greatest love, who make the boldest efforts to overcome themselves, and are not immediately apprehensive about tripping. — Saint Francis De Sales

Saint Francis of Assisi understood the power of faith put into action to change the human heart, for it was he who said, "Preach the gospel always; when necessary use words." We had not yet spoken a word in their language, but the village elders had already "heard" the gospel. — Richard Stearns

The damned are in the abyss of Hell, as within a woeful city, where they suffer unspeakable torments, in all their senses and members, because as they have employed all their senses and their members in sinning, so shall they suffer in each of them the punishment due to sin. — Saint Francis De Sales

If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently ... And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed. — Saint Francis De Sales

We must visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament a hundred thousand times a day. — Saint Francis De Sales

Nothing appeases an enraged elephant so much as the sight of a little lamb. — Saint Francis De Sales

To defend his purity, Saint Francis of Assisi rolled in the snow, Saint Benedict threw himself into a thorn bush, and Saint Bernard plunged into an icy pond ... You - what have you done? — Josemaria Escriva

When charity requires it we must freely and mildly communicate to our neighbor not only what is his instruction, but also what is profitable for his consolation. — Saint Francis De Sales

The Lord delights in every little step you take. — Saint Francis De Sales

Examine from time to time what are the dominant passions of your soul, and having ascertained this, mold your life, so that in thought, word, and deed you may as far as possible counteract them. — Saint Francis De Sales

Alms are an inheritance and a justice which is due to the poor and which Jesus has levied upon us. — Francis Of Assisi

The highest point of humility consists in not merely acknowledging one's abjection, but in taking pleasure therein, not from any want of breadth or courage, but to give the more glory to God's Divine Majesty, and to esteem one's neighbour more highly than one's self. — Saint Francis De Sales

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. - Saint Francis of Assisi — Joyce Meyer

Every morning prepare your soul for a tranquil day. — Saint Francis De Sales