Top 140 St. Vincent de Paul Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Since God is satisfied with our good will and honest efforts, let us also be satisfied with the outcome He gives to them, and our actions will never be without good results.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

102. “If you must be in a hurry, then let it be according to the old adage, and hasten slowly.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

103. “Naturally, everyone is disheartened by sharp reprimands, and by the most amiable corrections as well, if they are frequent, immoderate, or given inappropriately.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

104. “Do not be afraid of undertaking too much of what you can do without coming and going; but fear only the thought of doing more than you are doing and more than God is giving you the means to do.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

105. “In the name of God, Monsieur, let us have greater confidence in Him than we do; let us allow Him to steer our little bark; if it is useful and pleasing to Him, He will save it from shipwreck.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

106. “So, we pray well when we remain in this way in the presence of God, with no exertion of the understanding or will. Therefore, you will do well to listen to God in the urge you feel to return to us.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

107. “Let us reflect that we shall always do God’s Will and He will do ours when we carry out that of our Superiors.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

108. “God’s affairs are accomplished gradually and almost imperceptibly and His spirit is neither violent nor tempestuous.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

109. “There is nothing good that does not meet with opposition, and it should not be valued any less because it encounters objections.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

110. “Make an effort to serve good bread and good meat and not to sell the better wine so as to serve what is inferior...”

— St. Vincent de Paul

111. “If your men grow weary of the work or balk at obedience, you must bear with them. Get what you can gently from them. True, it is good to be firm in attaining your goal, but use appropriate, attractive, and agreeable means.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

112. “It seems to me that the best way will be the one that is most gentle and forbearing, which is more in conformity with the Spirit of Our Lord and more apt to win hearts.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

113. “Be acted upon rather than active. In this way, God will do through you alone what all men put together could not do without Him.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

114. “In a word, we owe obedience to the bishops in all things pertaining to our work in the missions, with ordinands, etc., but the spiritual and internal direction belongs to the Superior General.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

115. “If we want to find the manna hidden in our vocation, let us restrict and confine all our desires within it.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

116. “Remember the maxim of the Romans which states that by union and counsel we can achieve anything.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

117. “It is a maxim of ours to work in the service of the people, with the good pleasure of the pastors, and never to act contrary to their wishes. And, at the opening and closing of each mission, we get their blessing in a spirit of dependence.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

118. “Since I am a great sinner, I cannot reject those who have been, provided they have good will.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

119. “There are some persons who are content with everything and others who are scarcely content with anything. These latter need patience to bear with themselves.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

120. “Remember, Monsieur, that the downfall of most Communities comes from the cowardice of Superiors in not holding firm and in not purging them of the troublesome and incorrigible.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

121. “I have never made any distinction between those who have taken vows and those who have not; some should not be overburdened in order to spare others.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

122. “It will be easier for you to bring him around to where you want him more by gentleness and patience than by being too uncompromising.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

123. “He is greatly honored by the time we take to weigh with mature deliberation matters having to do with his service, as are all those with which we deal.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

124. “In a word, we are like the servants of the centurion in the Gospel with regard to the bishops, insofar as when they say to us: go, we are obliged to go; if they say: come, we are obliged to come; do that, and we are obliged to do it.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

125. “I feel so strongly about the truths Our Lord taught us by word and example that I cannot help but see how everything done according to that teaching always succeeds perfectly well, while things done the opposite way have a quite different result.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

126. “Would that God, Monsieur, had rendered us worthy of spending our lives, as Our Lord did, for the salvation of those poor souls so far removed from all assistance.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

127. “Furthermore, the apostolic life does not exclude contemplation but encompasses it and profits by it to know better the eternal truths it must proclaim.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

128. “The vine-stock bears fruit as long as it is attached to its stem; apart from that, no.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

129. “You know that you yourself are not always in the same state. If you are exact today, closely united to God, and a consolation to the whole house, tomorrow you will be out of sorts, indolent, and a source of affliction to others. Then you will need their support, as you have supported them.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

130. “I would rather him to bear patiently with it than to put himself in danger of a greater evil.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

131. “His Divine Goodness asks that we never do good in any place to make ourselves look important but that we always consider Him directly, immediately, and without intermediary in all our actions.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

132. “We must hold as an irrefutable maxim that the difficulties we have with our neighbor arise more from our immortified moods than from anything else.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

133. “There are good, God-fearing persons who still fall into certain faults, and it is better to bear with them than to be hard on them.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

134. “Three can do more than ten when Our Lord puts His hand to things, and He always does so when He takes away the means of doing otherwise.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

135. “You can give me no greater consolation nor render greater service to your neighbor than to place yourself in a condition to serve him for a long time.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

136. “A man who behaves poorly in a Community will not do well in a parish.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

137. “Experience teaches that what is feasible at the beginning is sometimes harmful as things go on, or subject to troublesome inconveniences.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

138. “You must moderate yourself according to your strength. When you have done all that you can to see that no Christian is perverted, you must find your consolation in Our Lord, who could prevent this misfortune and who is not doing so.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

139. “If we divested ourselves, once and for all, of all self-will, we would then be in a position of being sure of doing the Will of God, in which the angels find all their delight and men all their happiness.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

140. “If the Company takes my advice, it will always be preserved through this maxim, for if we are good, we will not lack any, and if we are not, we already have too many houses anyway, and can hardly fill the few we have.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

141. “I cannot think of the results of your labors without shame at the little we do.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

142. “In this way, through experience they will be formed adequately, will be encouraged, and will be capable of rendering service to God.”

— St. Vincent de Paul

143. “It is not easy to find perfect men in whom there is nothing to criticize.”

— St. Vincent de Paul