Be peaceful within yourself, and heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Be diligent to enter into the treasury that is within you, and you will see the treasury of Heaven: for these are one and the same, and with one entry you will behold them both. The ladder of the Kingdom is within you, hidden in your soul. Plunge deeply within yourself, away from sin, and there you will find steps by which you will be able to ascend.
–Saint John Climacus (c. 525-606)
Rise up from the sleep of the age. Walk cautiously and prudently. Cast off folly. Take hold of wisdom. In this way you will be able to avoid changing yourself constantly as you walk through the vicissitudes of the times. Rather you will find a unity within yourself even amid the diversity of the times.
–Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
Either you have God or you have nothing.
–Guigo I (c. 1083-1136)
Don’t make yourself into anyone other than the one he intended, and you will always have God in your mind.
–Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
Regard yourself all the more as a sinner because you cannot feel yourself to be what you are.
–Walter Hilton (1340-1396)
Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life… If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
