Quotes about Reflection

Be not angry that you cannot make another what you wish them to be; since you cannot make yourself what you wish to be.

The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does.

If you desire to know or learn anything to your advantage, then take delight in being unknown and unregarded. A true understanding and humble estimate of oneself is the highest and most valuable of all lessons. To take no account of oneself, but always to think well and highly of others is the highest wisdom and perfection.

Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or endeavoring something for the public good.

If you cannot recollect yourself continuously, do so once a day at least, in the morning or in the evening. In the morning make a resolution and in the evening examine yourself on what you have said this day, what you have done and thought, for in these things perhaps you have often offended God and those about you.

I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it.

To-day man is, and to-morrow he will be seen no more. And being removed out of sight, quickly also he is out of mind. O the dulness and hardness of man's heart, which thinketh only of the present, and looketh not forward to the future. Thou oughtest in every deed and thought so to order thyself, as if thou wert to die this day.

If you find yourself filled with anxiety, recall the many thorns that Jesus endured, and you will—and with greater calm—bear whatever annoyances may come from others, even serious headaches, and what is usually the most troublesome, the sharp thorns of calumny and slander.

This is great wisdom, not to be hasty in action, or stubborn in our own opinions.

But why do we talk and gossip so continually, seeing that we so rarely resume our silence without some hurt done to our conscience?

To account nothing of one's self, and to think always kindly and highly of others, this is great and perfect wisdom.

Quickly enough we feel and reckon up what we bear at the hands of others, but we reflect not how much others are bearing from us.