There is one case when we must resist evil forcefully. It is when it is not a case of defending ourselves but of protecting others. It takes forcefulness to defend the weak and the innocent when their oppressors wrong them. The spirit of peace is not a spirit of weakness but a spirit of strength.
–Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
We must stand up for the rights of our neighbor who is suffering from injustice; we must defend them all the more vigorously because we see Jesus present in them. Surely this is our duty because of our love for others for his sake. We have no right to be ‘sleeping watchmen’ or dumb watch-dogs. Whenever we see evil we must sound the alarm.
–Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us—in sin we were born.
— Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)
The root of all evil is ‘I’, ‘Me,’ ‘Mine.’
–Saint Pio (1887-1968)
Our worst fault is our preoccupation with the faults of others.
–Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
