Therese Quotes & Sayings

What story will our kids be telling about us someday, do you suppose?" "It'll be a lot more romantic than two senators matchmaking," I said. "They'll say that we were meant to be together no matter what. For us, stars aligned, the gods smiled - prob'ly there was a tidal wave someplace, too, and we just haven't heard about it yet." "A Homeric epic, it sounds like. Have another glass of champagne and tell me more." * — Therese Anne Fowler

You know how to dance in sunlight when everything is going fine, but you have to learn to dance in darkness when the sun is gone and nothing is going well. — Therese May

For the Javanese...the purpose of knowledge (kaweruh) is love, not ambition or cleverness. Knowledge comes from caring enough to suffer and learn. — Therese Walsh

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs - everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events - to the heart that loves, all is well. — Therese Of Lisieux

I want to give myself totally to Him ... I want to live no longer but for Him. — Therese Of Lisieux

Remember, the center of a woman is her uterus. Her crazy, crazy uterus. — Therese Oneill

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person. — Therese Of Lisieux

My husband and I have, in some ways, a non-traditional relationship - especially when it comes to domestic duties. He does most of the cooking, dishes, and laundry, while I do most of the yard work. I love to mow the lawn! And I take great satisfaction in planting and pruning. — Therese Fowler

The loveliest materpiece of the heart of God is the love of a Mother. — Therese Of Lisieux

It took strength to notice things, sometimes, when those things were hidden away in dark places, stuck on the edges of the periphery. Strength to point to them and say that matters enough that I need to do something about it, especially when no one else blinked over them or everyone else forgot they were important. — Therese Walsh

Their eyes met at the same instant moment, Therese glancing up from a box she was opening, and the woman just turning her head so she looked directly at Therese. She was tall and fair, her long figure graceful in the loose fur coat that she held open with a hand on her waist, her eyes were grey, colorless, yet dominant as light or fire, and, caught by them, Therese could not look away. She heard the customer in front of her repeat a question, and Therese stood there, mute. The woman was looking at Therese, too, with a preoccupied expression, as if half her mind were on whatever is was she meant to buy here, and though there were a number of salesgirls between them, There felt sure the woman would come to her, Then, Then Therese saw her walk slowly towards the counter, heard her heart stumble to catch up with the moment it had let pass, and felt her face grow hot as the woman came nearer and nearer. — Patricia Highsmith

You heard me, only Friend whom I love. To ravish my heart, you became man. You shed your blood, what a supreme mystery! ... And you still live for me on the Altar. If I cannot see the brilliance of your Face Or hear your sweet voice, O my God, I can live by your grace, I can rest on your Sacred Heart! — Therese Of Lisieux

Trouble, it don't need an engraved invitation. — Therese Anne Fowler

Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe. — Therese Of Lisieux

Holiness is a disposition of the heart that makes us humble and little in the arms of God, aware of our weakness, and confident - in the most audacious way - in His Fatherly goodness. — Therese Of Lisieux

When you walk a life of honesty, you live a life of truth. — Therese Benedict

I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. — Therese Of Lisieux

They roared into the Lincoln Tunnel. A wild, inexplicable excitement mounted in Therese as she stared through the windshield. She wished the tunnel might cave in and kill them both, that their bodies might be dragged out together. She felt Carol glancing at her from time to time. — Patricia Highsmith

The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeking them, they do not satisfy us when possessing them, and they make us despair in losing them. — Anne-Therese De Marguenat De Courcelles

My soul experienced a peace so sweet, so deep, it would be impossible to express it. — Therese Of Lisieux

Hope was a powerful thing. Difficult to risk. — Therese Walsh

Prayer for me is an updward leap of the heart — Therese Of Lisieux

Nothing's done well when it's done out of self-interest. — Therese Of Lisieux

I've come to wonder whether artists in particular seek out hard times the way flowers turn their faces toward the sun. — Therese Anne Fowler

When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens,I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth. — Therese De Lisieux

How indifferent he was to Carol after all, Therese thought. She felt he didn't see her, as he sometimes hadn't seen figures in rock or cloud formations when she had tried to point them out to him. — Patricia Highsmith

Then, overcome by joy, I cried, 'Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things. — Therese De Lisieux

If the river has a soul, it's a peaceful one. If it has a lesson to impart, that lesson is patience. There will be drought, it says; there will be floods; the ice will form, the ice will melt; the water will flow and blend into the river's brackish mouth, then join the ocean between Lewes and Cape May, endlessly, forever, amen. — Therese Anne Fowler

My creative workday starts with strong breakfast tea and a few minutes of journaling, both of which help me get my head in the story. So much of story-building for me involves immersing myself in the character and situation I'll be working on, just the way an actor does when playing a role. — Therese Fowler

I will send a shower of roses. — Therese Of Lisieux

Do you realize
that Jesus is there
in the tabernacle
expressly for you-
for you alone? He
burns with the
desire to come into
your heart ... don't
listen to the demon,
laugh at him, and
go without fear to
receive the Jesus of
peace and love ... — Therese De Lisieux

This was Scott. This is Scott, always looking back to try to figure out how to go forward, where happiness and prosperity must surely await. — Therese Anne Fowler

Therese leaned closer toward it, looking down at her glass. She wanted to thrust the table aside and spring into her arms, to bury her nose in the green and gold scarf that was tied close about her neck. Once the backs of their hands brushed on the table, and Therese's skin there felt separately alive now, and rather burning. — Patricia Highsmith

There are as many routes to writing success as there are writers who got there. My advice, however, applies across the board: read widely, learn the craft by whatever means you can - workshops and writing programs are ideal, but even self-study can work - apply what you learn, and persevere. — Therese Fowler

Scott is gone.
I've had two days with this truth. This truth and me, we're acquainted now, past the shock of our first unhappy meeting and into the uneasy-cohabitation stage. Its barbs are slightly duller than they were that first night, when even breathing felt agonizing and wrong. Tootsie and Marjorie hovered over me, waiting to see whether I'd collapse, while Mama looked on, white-faced, from her rocker by the fire. "Gone?" I would whisper, to no-one in particular. I, too, waited for me to be overwhelmed - but all that happened was what happens to anyone who has lost their one love: my heart cleaved into two parts, before and foreverafterward. — Therese Anne Fowler

Point-of-view is a matter that readers rarely pay attention to, yet it's one of the most important story decisions an author makes. — Therese Fowler

The morrow of this day will be eternity; then Jesus will return you a hundred fold the lovely, rightful joys that you are sacrificing for him. — Therese Of Lisieux

You will be tempted to lose hope, but always remember that God is with you and if there seems to be no hope, He is your hope. — Therese May

I'm among the first girls ever to play Little League baseball, and to my knowledge, the very first in western Illinois. It was 1976, and I was a nine-year-old tomboy whose older brothers had played. — Therese Fowler

Undoubtedly, on his death bed, at
that moment when, ever since Socrates, it has been proper to pronounce certain elevated words, he told
his wife, as one of my uncles told his, who
had watched beside him for twelve nights, I do not thank you, Therese; you have only done your
duty. — Jean-Paul Sartre

Even now I know it: yes, all my hopes will be fulfilled ... yes ... the Lord will work wonders for me which will surpass infinitely my immeasurable desires. — Therese Of Lisieux

Prayer and sacrifice can touch souls better than words. — Therese Of Lisieux

But to declare his wishes only in some unknown corner of Asia, to choose the most double-dealing and the most superstitious of peoples as followers, and the vilest, most ridiculous, and most roguish working man as representative, to muddle up the message so much that it is impossible to comprehend, to teach it only to a tiny number of individuals while leaving everyone else in the dark, and to punish them for remaining there ... Oh, no, Therese, no, no, such atrocities cannot be our guide. I would rather die a thousand times than believe in them. When atheism wants martyrs, let it choose them and my blood is ready. — Marquis De Sade

When you love someone you tend to tell them so much about your past because you're trying to catch up to the present moment. You're trying to say, my past has been bloody. My past has been as painful and pounding as an ear ache, but I am still here. I survived it. You're trying to say, here I am before you. I can be brutal. I can be as harsh and unforgiving as sun burn, but this is how I got to this moment. This is who I am. I am not always kind and lovely, I am so often fierce and cutting and unforgiving. I have made some mistakes I'm still trying to forgive myself for. Please accept it. Please try to love me for it. Here is the muscle and bone of me. It's frightening. It's a roller coaster. Here is the meat of me, after I've shed my skin, after I've left the cicada shell behind. It's manic. It's a monster, but it will try to love you well. It will try to leave fingerprints all over you. — Jessica Therese

I am now at a time of life when I can look back on the past, for my soul has been refined in the crucible of interior and exterior trials. Now, like a flower after the storm, I can raise my head and see that the words of the Psalm are realised in me: "The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall want nothing. He hath set me in a place of pasture. He hath brought me up on the water of refreshment. He hath converted my soul. He hath led me on the paths of justice for His own Name's sake. For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils for Thou are with me."[6] — Therese, Saint De Lisieux

Love is the Cross, and the Cross is Love. — Therese Of Lisieux

(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books ... If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God. — Therese Of Lisieux

He [Jesus] has no need of our works but only of our love. — Therese Of Lisieux

Discouragement itself is a form of pride. — Therese Of Lisieux

Frequently, only silence can express my prayer. — Therese Of Lisieux

The world's thy ship and not thy home. — Therese De Lisieux

Time is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in glory and takes joy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my soul! I understand then why He lets us suffer. — Therese Of Lisieux

We who run in the way of Love must never torment ourselves about anything. If I did not suffer minute by minute, it would be impossible for me to be patient; but I see only the present moment, I forget the past, and take good care not to anticipate the future. If we grow disheartened, if sometimes we despair, it is because we have been dwelling on the past or the future. — Therese Of Lisieux

Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity. — Therese Of Lisieux

A soul in a state of grace need fear nothing from devils, for they are so cowardly that they feel from the gaze of a child — St-Therese De Lisieux

A heart given to God loses none of its natural tenderness; on the contrary, the more pure and divine it becomes, the more such tenderness increases. — Therese Of Lisieux

The dusky and faintly sweet smell of her perfume came to Therese again, a smell suggestive of dark green silk, that was hers alone, like the smell of a special flower. — Patricia Highsmith

The one, more Latin, more Roman, closer to eloquence than to the literal word, aims at a certain effect, at magic. The other, more Greek, more Hellenistic, seeks transparency flowing from the source. — Therese De Lisieux

Don't you want to forget it, if it's past?"
"I don't know. I don't know just how you mean that."
"I mean, are you sorry?"
"No. Would I do the same thing again? Yes."
"Do you mean with somebody else, or with her?"
"With her," Therese said. — Patricia Highsmith

That beautiful day passed just as the saddest ones do, since the most radiant of days has a tomorrow. — Therese De Lisieux

But Carol had not betrayed her. Carol loved her more than she loved her child. That was part of the reason why she had not promised.
She was gambling now as she had gambled on getting everything from the detective that day on the road, and she lost then, too. And now she saw Carol's face changing, saw the little signs of astonishment and shock so subtle that perhaps only she in the world could have noticed them, and Therese could not think for a moment. — Patricia Highsmith

Much later, when I understood what perfection was, I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself. I understood that there were many kinds of of sanctity and that each soul was free to respond to the approaches of Our Lord and to do little or much for Him - in other words,to make a choice among the sacrifices He demands. — Therese Of Lisieux

But it was hard to be happy when the day smelled like a big pot of I-hate-your-guts. — Therese Walsh

I knew love was a burden to her. But it was an agreeable burden. She was very delicate. Sometimes I wondered whether she realized to what extent love was an adventure. To her it seemed to be a refuge against the bitterness of the world; to me it wasn't a destination but a stop exposed to winds, to thunders, a stop exposed to storms, a stop among other stops between the first day and the last day in the life of every man and woman. I wished Therese could realize that we were only friends. — Mbella Sonne Dipoko

Exhaustion's not an excuse, its a reason — Therese Anne Fowler

Perfect love means putting up with other peoples shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them. — Therese Of Lisieux

Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude. — Therese Of Lisieux

Temperance adds zest to pleasure. — Anne-Therese De Marguenat De Courcelles

At last there dawned the most beautiful day of all the days of my life. How perfectly I remember even the smallest details of those sacred hours! The joyful awakening, the reverent and tender embraces of my mistresses and older companions, the room filled with white frocks, like so many snowflakes, where each child was dressed in turn. — Therese Of Lisieux

We should not let grass grow on the path of friendship. — Marie Therese Rodet Geoffrin

Love consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender. — Therese Of Lisieux

Not all writers want to be profound (though an awful lot of them do); some want to entertain, some want to inform; some are trying to provoke the most basic, universal feeling using a minimum of words-I think of Emily Dickinson -to demonstrate how it is to be human in our crazy world today. — Therese Anne Fowler

Finally, Carol said in a tone of hopelessness, "Darling, can I ask you to forgive me?"
The tone hurt Therese more than the question. "I love you, Carol."
"But do you see what it means? — Patricia Highsmith

Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven, the only one goal of our labors. — Therese Of Lisieux

To dedicate oneself as a Victim of Love is not to be dedicated to sweetness and consolations; it is to offer oneself to all that is painful and bitter, because Love lives only by sacrifice and the more we would surrender ourselves to Love, the more we must surrender
ourselves to suffering — Therese De Lisieux

For me to love you, Jesus, as you love me, I would have to borrow your own love and then only would I be at rest. — Therese Of Lisieux

We can easily forgive want of means; but littleness, with means, is disgusting. — Anne-Therese De Marguenat De Courcelles

What a joy to remember that she is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weakness, what have we to fear? — Therese Of Lisieux

I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifices to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul. — Therese De Lisieux

What men need is to grow up. — Therese Anne Fowler

They came to realize that, even if evil and injustice seemed to win at some point, God would still be the ultimate victor. In the end good and justice would prevail forever. — Therese May

Let us not be justices of the peace, but angels of peace. — Therese Of Lisieux

I say nothing to him I love him — Therese De Lisieux

Therese was propped up on one elbow. The milk was so hot, she could barely let her lip touch it at first. The tiny sips spread inside her mouth and released a melange of organic flavors. The milk seemed to taste of bone and blood, of warm flesh, or hair, saltless as chalk yet alive as a growing embryo. It was hot through and through to the bottom of the cup, and Therese drank it down, as people in fairy tales drink the potion that will transform, or the unsuspecting warrior the cup that will kill, Then Carol came and took the cup, and Therese was drowsily aware that Carol asked her three questions, on that had to do with happiness, one about the store and one about the future. Therese heard herself answering. She heard her voice rise suddenly in a babble, like a spring that she had no control over, and she realized she was in tears. She was telling Carol all that she feared and disliked, of her loneliness, of Richard, and of gigantic disappointments. — Patricia Highsmith

In Heaven the good God will do all I wish, because I have never done my own will upon earth. — Therese Of Lisieux

While I bathed, while I tried but failed to sleep, I considered how I might become more like the women I respected and admired. Surrounded as I was by ambitious, accomplished women, I couldn't ignore the little voice in my head that said maybe I was supposed to shed halfway, and do something significant. Contribute something. Accomplish something. Choose. Be. — Therese Anne Fowler

Adventure:' there's a word that worked on us both like a charm. — Therese Anne Fowler

Do not allow grass to grow on the road of friendship. — Marie Therese Rodet Geoffrin

When we are expecting only suffering, the least joy surprises us: Suffering itself becomes the greatest of joys when we seek it as a precious treasure. — Therese Of Lisieux

My director, Jesus, does not teach me to count my acts, but to do everything for love, to refuse Him nothing, to be pleased when He gives me a chance to prove to Him that I love Him - but all this in peace - in abandonment. — Therese Of Lisieux

Maybe I ought to have put her together with Coco, who might have enlightened us both about the impracticality and undesirability of giving one's whole self to any man - for all the good it would have done. — Therese Anne Fowler

My vocation, at last I have found it; my vocation is love. — Therese Of Lisieux

He has created the poor savage with no guide but natural law, and it is to their hearts that He deigns to stoop. They are His wild flowers whose homeliness delights Him. — Therese Of Lisieux

When something painful or disagreeable happens to me, instead of a melancholy look, I answer by a smile. At first I did not always succeed, but now it has become a habit which I am glad to have acquired. — Therese De Lisieux

One of the duties of old-age, is the management of time. The less that remains to us, the more valuable we ought to consider it. — Anne-Therese De Marguenat De Courcelles

Trying to do good to people without God's help is no easier than making the sun shine at midnight. You discover that you've got to abandon all your own preferences, your own bright ideas, and guide souls along the road our Lord has marked out for them. You mustn't coerce them into some path of your own choosing. — Therese Of Lisieux

Above the clouds the sky is always blue. — Therese Of Lisieux

Just as the sun shines on all the trees and flowers as if each were the only one on earth, so does God care for all souls in a special manner. — Therese De Lisieux

It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes delight. — Therese Of Lisieux

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily
do not rob the little violet of it's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm.
If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. — Therese De Lisieux