Quotes by Jesuit Priests

The Rose does not preen herself to catch my eye. She blooms because she blooms. A saint is a saint until he knows he is one.
Anthony de Mello
Begin with another's to end with your own.
Baltasar Gracián
Words are feminine deeds are masculine.
Baltasar Gracián
A beautiful woman should break her mirror early.
Baltasar Gracián
The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected.
Baltasar Gracián
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Baltasar Gracián
A sage has one advantage he is immortal. If this is not his century many others will be.
Baltasar Gracián
Good things when short are twice as good.
Baltasar Gracián
It is a great misfortune to be of use to nobody scarcely less to be of use to everybody.
Baltasar Gracián
Truth always lags last limping along on the arm of Time.
Baltasar Gracián
Time and I against any two.
Baltasar Gracián
Nothing really belongs to us but time which even he has who has nothing else.
Baltasar Gracián
Superiority is always detested.
Baltasar Gracián
Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a word never to withdraw one.
Baltasar Gracián
Nothing arouses ambition so much as the trumpet clang of another's fame.
Baltasar Gracián
Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult and difficult as if they were easy in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep in the other that it may not be dismayed.
Baltasar Gracián
The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious.
Baltasar Gracián
Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult and difficult as if they were easy in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep in the other that it may not be dismayed.
Baltasar Gracián
The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious.
Baltasar Gracián
At twenty a man is a peacock at thirty a lion at forty a camel at fifty a serpent at sixty a dog at seventy an ape at eighty nothing at all.
Baltasar Gracián
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
Baltasar Gracián
Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding better those who push forward who employ their enterprise who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck and to effectively gain her favor.
Baltasar Gracián
The greatest wisdom often consists in ignorance.
Baltasar Gracián
Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand.
Baltasar Gracián
Surfeits of happiness are fatal.
Baltasar Gracián
Wise men appreciate all men for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.
Baltasar Gracián
Good things when short are twice as good.
Baltasar Gracián
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Baltasar Gracián
Friends are a second existence.
Baltasar Gracián
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. Tis the sole remedy against misfortune the very ventilation of the soul.
Baltasar Gracián
There is no wilderness like a life without friends friendship multiplies blessings and minimizes misfortunes it is a unique remedy against adversity and it soothes the soul.
Baltasar Gracián
A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him than what it has denied.
Baltasar Gracián
Even knowledge has to be in fashion and where it is not it is wise to affect ignorance.
Baltasar Gracián
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Baltasar Gracián
Knowledge without courage is sterile.
Baltasar Gracián
He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead for she is wont to favor the bold.
Baltasar Gracián
One who was adored by all in prosperity is abhorred by all in adversity.
Baltasar Gracián
Do not show your wounded finger for everything will knock up against it.
Baltasar Gracián
It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it.
Baltasar Gracián
If you are wise live as you can if you cannot live as you would.
Baltasar Gracián
Of what use is it to be tolerant of others if you are convinced that you are right and everyone who disagrees with you is wrong? That isn’t tolerance but condescension.
Anthony de Mello
Rivalry discovers that courtesy overlooks.
Baltasar Gracián
Say farewell to luck when winning. It is the way of the gamblers of reputation. Quite as important as a gallant advance is a well-planned retreat. Lock up your winnings when they are enough, or when great. Continuous luck is always suspect; more secure is that which changes. Though half bitter and half sweet, it is more satisfying to the taste. The more luck pyramids, the greater the danger of slip and collapse. For luck always compensates her intensity by her brevity. Fortune wearies of carrying anyone long upon her shoulders.
Baltasar Gracián
There are rules to luck, not everything is chance for the wise; luck can be helped by skill.
Baltasar Gracián
Quit while you’re ahead.All the best gamblers do.
Baltasar Gracián Y Morales
The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.
Baltasar Gracián
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
Baltasar Gracián
Everyone who doubts knows that he is doubting, so that he is certain of this truth at least, namely the fact that he doubts. Thus every one who doubts whether there is such a thing as truth, knows at least one truth, so that his very capacity to doubt should convince him that there is such a thing as truth.
Frederick Charles Copleston
The great art of giving consists in this the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.
Baltasar Gracián
Respect yourself is you would have others respect you.
Baltasar Gracián
As one man said, "I got a pretty good education. It took me years to get over it." That's what spirituality is all about, you know: unlearning. Unlearning all the rubbish they taught you.
Anthony de Mello
Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.
Anthony de Mello
The world is right because I feel good.p. 83, Awareness, copyright 1990
Anthony de Mello
When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.
Anthony de Mello
It requires as much caution to tell the truth as to conceal it.
Baltasar Gracián
True tolerance only arises from a keen awareness of the abysmal ignorance of everyone as far as truth is concerned.
Anthony de Mello
Thinking is itself, however, an adventure.
James V. Schall
People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.
Anthony de Mello
When it comes to ourselves, we often have a blind spot. That is, we fail to see ourselves as others see us. We fail to recognize our most obvious traits: our strengths, weaknesses, mannerisms.
Mark Link
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
Baltasar Gracián