Top 180 Teresa of Ávila Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “As to the aridity you are suffering from, it seems to me our Lord is treating you like someone He considers strong: He wants to test you and see if you love Him as much at times of aridity as when He sends you consolations. I think this is a very great favor for God to show you.”

— Teresa of Ávila

102. “Union is as if in a room there were two large windows through which the light streamed in; it enters in different places but it all becomes one.”

— Teresa of Ávila

103. “Jacob did not cease to be a Saint because he had to attend to his flocks.”

— Teresa of Ávila

104. “God deliver me from people who are so spiritual that they want to turn everything into perfect contemplation, come what may.”

— Teresa of Ávila

105. “Be kind to all and severe to thyself.”

— Teresa of Ávila

106. “It should be observed that perfect love of God consists not in those delights, tears and sentiments of devotion that we generally seek, but in a strong determination and keen desire to please God in all things, and to promote His glory.”

— Teresa of Ávila

107. “You ought to make every effort to free yourselves even from venial sin, and to do what is most perfect.”

— Teresa of Ávila

108. “To wish to act like angels while we are still in this world is nothing but folly.”

— Teresa of Ávila

109. “It is only mercenaries who expect to be paid by the day.”

— Teresa of Ávila

110. “Let us consider what the glorious Virgin endured, and what the holy apostles suffered, and we shall find that they who were nearest to Jesus Christ were the most afflicted.”

— Teresa of Ávila

111. “Oh, how everything that is suffered with love is healed again!”

— Teresa of Ávila

112. “People in the world pay little heed to reason where their own interests are involved.”

— Teresa of Ávila

113. “But the fact is, things always seem to come slowly when you are longing for them.”

— Teresa of Ávila

114. “Alas, O Lord, to what a state dost Thou bring those who love Thee!”

— Teresa of Ávila

115. “Never do anything which you could not do in the sight of all.”

— Teresa of Ávila

116. “There was the torture of sermons, and that not a slight one, for I was very fond of them.”

— Teresa of Ávila

117. “They deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures, and in the enjoyment of Him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and subjection of our will – with our thoughts, words and actions – to the will of God.”

— Teresa of Ávila

118. “True love grows by sacrifice and the more thoroughly the soul rejects natural satisfaction the stronger and more detached its tenderness becomes...”

— Teresa of Ávila

119. “The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.”

— Teresa of Ávila

120. “We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.”

— Teresa of Ávila

121. “Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.”

— Teresa of Ávila

122. “All the trials we endure cannot be compared to these interior battles.”

— Teresa of Ávila

123. “If we learn to love the earth, we will find labyrinths, gardens, fountains and precious jewels! A whole new world will open itself to us. We will discover what it means to be truly alive.”

— Teresa of Ávila

124. “Much more is accomplished by a single word of the Our Father said, now and then, from our heart, than by the whole prayer repeated many times in haste and without attention.”

— Teresa of Ávila

125. “There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.”

— Teresa of Ávila

126. “With all this wide and beautiful creation before me, the restless soul longs to enjoy its liberty and rest beyond its bound.”

— Teresa of Ávila

127. “Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.”

— Teresa of Ávila

128. “It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not always be the same.”

— Teresa of Ávila

129. “May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds.”

— Teresa of Ávila

130. “If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you.”

— Teresa of Ávila

131. “Untilled soil, however fertile it may be, will bear thistles and thorns; so it is with man’s mind.”

— Teresa of Ávila

132. “All the troubles of the Church, all the evils in the world, flow from this source: that men do not by clear and sound knowledge and serious consideration penetrate into the truths of Sacred Scripture.”

— Teresa of Ávila

133. “How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer.”

— Teresa of Ávila

134. “To converse with You, O King of glory, no third person is needed, You are always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience to all. All who desire You always find You there, and converse with You face to face.”

— Teresa of Ávila

135. “If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend.”

— Teresa of Ávila

136. “I am quite sure I am more afraid of people who are themselves terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself.”

— Teresa of Ávila

137. “However softly we speak, God is near enough to hear us.”

— Teresa of Ávila

138. “The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility.”

— Teresa of Ávila

139. “Our greatest gain is to lose the wealth that is of such brief duration and, by comparison with eternal things, of such little worth; yet we get upset about it and our gain turns to loss.”

— Teresa of Ávila

140. “We should blush for shame to show so much resentment at what is done or said against us, knowing that so many injuries and affronts have been offered to our Redeemer and the saints.”

— Teresa of Ávila

141. “Those who in fact risk all for God will find that they have both lost all and gained all.”

— Teresa of Ávila

142. “One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer.”

— Teresa of Ávila

143. “Christ moves along the pots and pans.”

— Teresa of Ávila

144. “There is more security in self-denial, mortification, and other like virtues, than in an abundance of tears.”

— Teresa of Ávila

145. “Nothing is small if God accepts it.”

— Teresa of Ávila

146. “God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.”

— Teresa of Ávila

147. “Strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart.”

— Teresa of Ávila

148. “Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour.”

— Teresa of Ávila

149. “Humility, however deep it be, neither disquiets nor troubles nor disturbs the soul; it is accompanied by peace, joy and tranquillity.”

— Teresa of Ávila

150. “How friendly all men would be one with another, if no regard were paid to honour and money! I believe it would be a remedy for everything.”

— Teresa of Ávila