Quotes from Teresa of Avila

[Last words:] My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another.

In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree.

While the soul is in mortal sin, nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward, since they do not proceed from God as their first principle, and by Him alone is our virtue real virtue.

It is love alone that gives worth to all things.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ's compassion to the world Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.

Thank God for the things that I do not own.

Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God.

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.

Be gentle to all, and stern with yourself.

Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.

Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, all things are passing, God is unchanging. Patience gains all; nothing is lacking to those who have God: God alone is sufficient.