Saintly Quotes - St. Alphonsus de Liguori

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Yesterday was the feast of a saint whose spiritual guidance is priceless.  Today is the feast another saint whose spiritual guidance will also help make one a saint if we would only listen.  

"When faith grows weak, all virtues are weakened.  When faith is lost, all virtues are lost."

"We should only make use of life to grow in the love of God."

"The upright intention is the soul of our actions.  It gives them life and makes them good."

"It is folly not to think of death.  It is greater folly to think of it, and not prepare for it."

"The most perfect and meritorious intention is that by which, in all our actions, we have in view only the good pleasure of God and the accomplishment of  His holy will."

"Act as if every day were the last of your life, and each action the last you perform."

"Woe to him who neglects to recommend himself to Mary, and thus closes the channel of grace!"

"God refuses no one the gift of prayer.  By it we obtain the help that we need to overcome disorderly desires and temptations of all kinds."

"There are many things which seem to us misfortunes and which we call such; but if we understood the designs of God we would call them graces."

"When one does not love prayer, it is morally impossible for him to resist his passions."

"When the devil again tempts you to sin, telling you that God is merciful, remember that the Lord showeth mercy to them that fear Him, but not to them who despise Him."

"He who suffers in patience, suffers less and saves his soul.  He who suffers impatiently, suffers more and loses his soul."

"Let us thank God for having called us to  His holy faith.  It is a great gift, and the number of those who  thank God for it is small."

"When the afflictions of this life overcome us, let us encourage ourselves to bear them patiently by the hope of heaven."

"To put into practice the teachings of our holy faith, it is not enough to convince ourselves that they are true; we must love them.  Love united to faith makes us practise our religion.

"God pardons sins; but He will not pardon the will to sin."

"He who does not overcome his predominant passion is in great danger of being lost.  He who does overcome it will easily conquer all the rest."

"A soul which does not practise the exercise of prayer is very like a paralyzed body which, though possessing feet and hands, makes no use of them."

"When you do a good action, have the intention of first pleasing God, and then of giving good example to your neighbor."

"To acquire courage it is very useful to read the lives of the saints, especially of those who, after living in sin, attained great sanctity."

"The truly humble reject all praise for themselves, and refer it all to God."

"We do not keep an account of the graces which God has given us, but God our Lord keeps an account of them.  He has fixed the measure thereof."

"Mary was the most perfect among the saints only because she was always perfectly united to the will of God."

"After the love which we owe Jesus Christ, we must give the chief place in our heart to the love of His Mother Mary."

"When we feel our cross weighing upon us, let us have recourse to Mary, whom the Church calls the 'Consoler of the Afflicted.'"

"Blessed are the actions enclosed between two Hail Marys."

"The servants of Mary who are in purgatory receive visits and consolations from her."

"If you persevere until death in true devotion to Mary, your salvation is certain."

"He who remembers having invoked the name of Mary in an impure temptation, may be sure that he did not yield to it."

"Mary being destined to negotiate peace between God and man, it was not proper that she should be an accomplice in the disobedience of Adam."

"Mary having co-operated in our redemption with so much glory to God and so much  love for us, Our Lord ordained that no one shall obtain salvation except through her intercession."

"He who wishes to find Jesus will do so only by having recourse to Mary."

"Mary having always lived wholly detached from earthly things and united with God, death, which united her more closely to Him, was extremely sweet and agreeable to her."

"Mary being in heaven nearer to God and more united to Him, knows our miseries better, compassionates them more, and can more efficaciously assist us."

"The Virgin Mother, all pure and all white, will make her servants pure and white."

"Let us offer ourselves without delay and without reserve to Mary, and beg her to offer us herself to God."

"Such is the compassion, such the love which Mary bears us, that she is never tired of praying for us."

"May the two names so sweet and so powerful, of Jesus and Mary, be always in our heats and on our lips!"

"Whatsoever we do, we can never be true children of Mary, unless we are humble."

"Let us highly esteem devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and let us lose no opportunity of inspiring others with it."

"As a mother feels no disgust in dressing the sores of her child, so Mary, the heavenly infirmarian, never refuses to care for sinners who have recourse to her"

"When the devil wishes to make himself master of a soul, he seeks to make it give up devotion to Mary."

"Know that of all devotions the most pleasing to Mary is to have frequent recourse to her, asking for favors."

"Let the servants of Mary perform every day, and especially on Saturday, some work of charity for her sake."

"Can we, amongst all hearts, find one more amiable than that of Jesus?  It is on His Heart that God looks with special complacency."

"One must wage war against his predominate passion, and not retreat, until, with God's help, he has been victorious."

"An act of perfect conformity to the will of God unites us more to Him than a hundred other acts of virtue."

"He can not err who is constantly with the visible Head which Jesus Christ has left to His Church, as its foundation, rule, teacher, and defender of the Faith."

"Wo to us poor sinners if we had not the Divine Sacrifice to appease the Lord?"

"Our Faith will never be true unless it is united to that of St. Peter and the Pontiff, his successors."

"The brightest ornaments in the crown of the blessed in heaven are the sufferings which they have borne patiently on earth."

"The reason why the lukewarm run so great a risk of being lost is because tepidity conceals from the soul the immense evil which it causes."

"The sufferings endured for God are the greatest proof of our love for Him."

"I have to seek only the glory of God, my own sanctification, and the salvation of my neighbor.  I should therefore devote myself to these things, if necessary, at the peril of my life."

"To give up prayer because we are often distracted at it is to allow the devil to gain his cause."

"Let us remember that every act of mortification is a work for heaven.  This thought will make all suffering and weariness sweet."

"If you can not mortify your body by actual penance, abstain at least from some lawful pleasure."

"Without prayer we have neither light nor strength to advance in the way which leads to God."

"An upright intention is the soul of our actions.  It gives them life, and makes them good."

"The saints owed to their confidence in God that unalterable tranquility of soul, which procured their perpetual joy and peace, even in the midst of adversities."

"All souls in hell are there because they did not pray.  All the
saints sanctified themselves by prayer.

"Always give the preference to actions which appear to you the most agreeable to God, and most contrary to self-love."

"We should constantly thank the Lord for having granted us the gift of the true faith, by associating us with the children of the holy Catholic Church."

Some are unable to fast or give alms; there are none who can not pray."

"We should bear our sufferings in expiation for our sins, to merit heaven and to please God."

"Let us make up for lost time.  Let us give to God the time that remains to us."


"There are some who sin through frailty, or through the force of some violent passion.  They desire to break these chains of death; if their prayer is constant they will be heard."

"'Thy will be done!' This is what the saints had continually on their lips and in their hearts."

"If he be blind who refuses to believe in the truths of the Catholic faith, how much blinder is he who believes, and yet lives as if he did not believe!" 


"If you would keep yourself pure, shun dangerous occasions.  Do not trust your own strength. In this matter we can not take too much precaution."

"Prayer is our principal weapon. By it we obtain of God the victory over our evil inclinations, and over all temptations of hell."

"As all our wickedness consists in turning away from our Creator, so all our goodness consists in uniting ourselves with Him."

"He who wishes to find Jesus should seek Him, not in the delights and pleasures of the world, but in mortification of the senses."

"We may have a confident hope of our salvation when we apply ourselves to relieve the souls in purgatory, so afflicted and so dear to God."

"Let us red the lives of the saints; let us consider the penances which they performed, and blush to be so effeminate and so fearful of mortifying our flesh."

"The greatest pain which the holy souls suffer in purgatory proceeds from their desire to possess God.  This suffering especially afflicts those who in life had but a feeble desire of heaven."

"A resolute will triumphs over everything with the help of God, which is never wanting."

"When we have to reply to some one who speaks harshly to us, we must always do it with gentleness.  If we are angry, it is better to keep silence."

"The two principal dispositions which we should bring to holy communion are detachment from creatures, and the desire to receive Our Lord with a view to loving Him more in the future."


"No prayers are so acceptable to God as those which we offer Him after communion."

"What is it that renders death terrible?  Sin.  We must therefore fear sin, not death."


"When one has fallen into some fault, what better remedy can there be than to have immediate recourse to the Most Blessed Sacrament?

"Let your constant practice be to offer yourself to God, that He may do with you what He pleases."


"We can obtain no reward without merit, and no merit without patience."

"Do not consider what others do, or how they do it; for there are but few who really work for their own sanctification."

"Today God invites you to do good; do it therefore today. Tomorrow you may not have time, or God may no longer call you to do it."

"God is our light. The farther the soul strays away from God, the deeper it goes into darkness."

"The King of heaven deigned to be born in a stable, because He came to destroy pride, the cause of man's ruin."

"To save our souls we must live according to the maxims of the Gospel, and not according to those of the world."

"If you wish to be pleasing to God and happy here below, be in all things united to His will."

"The past is not longer yours; the future is not yet in your power.  You h ave only the present wherein to do good."

Thoughts and Counsels of the saints for Every Day of the Year - Public Domain