Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
766eb84	Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is "timing" it waits on the right time to act,	power timing waiting	Fulton J. Sheen
2531315	It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished.	christianity church expectations god happiness lovers marriage philosophy relationship-with-god relationships religion spirituality unhappy-marriage	Fulton J. Sheen
bcc9601	Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.	christianity criticism judgement philosophy spirituality	Fulton J. Sheen
66e8497	When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.	women	Fulton J. Sheen
251db6e	The difference between the love of a man and the love of a woman is that a man will always give reasons for loving, but a woman gives no reasons for loving.	love men-and-women reasons	Fulton J. Sheen
68d66c7	Books are the most wonderful friends in the world. When you meet them and pick them up, they are always ready to give you a few ideas. When you put them down, they never get mad; when you take them up again, they seem to enrich you all the more.		Fulton J. Sheen
a9ba67a	Far better it is for you to say: "I am a sinner," than to say: "I have no need of religion." The empty can be filled, but the self-intoxicated have no room for God."	catholicism christianity god religion sinners	Fulton J. Sheen
8894645	A teacher who cannot explain any abstract subject to a child does not himself thoroughly understand his subject; if he does not attempt to break down his knowledge to fit the child's mind, he does not understand teaching.	students teacher teaching	Fulton J. Sheen
8a62b1d	Never forget that there are only two philosophies to rule your life: the one of the cross, which starts with the fast and ends with the feast. The other of Satan, which starts with the feast and ends with the headache.	christianity god jesus-christ philosophy satan	Fulton J. Sheen
ed56ff8	A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.		Fulton J. Sheen
e534c70	Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from God, you are perfected and completed.	christianity god jesus-christ perfected-man religion spirituality	Fulton J. Sheen
bcadc45	When a child is given to his parents, a crown is made for that child in Heaven, and woe to the parents who raise a child without consciousness of that eternal crown!	god life	Fulton J. Sheen
3c4e541	We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.		Fulton J. Sheen
deca7f0	Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths.	catholicism christianity church discipline happiness imoral morality religion unhappiness	Fulton J. Sheen
9e9928d	Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: 'I am Who am.' The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: 'I am who am not.' Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.	satan sin the-devil the-enemy	Fulton J. Sheen
46c06ce	Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.	humans the-world	Fulton J. Sheen
809bfd1	A man may stand for the justice of God, but a woman stands for His Mercy.		Fulton J. Sheen
c172e6c	The mark of man is initiative, but the mark of woman is cooperation. Man talks about freedom; woman about sympathy, love, sacrifice. Man cooperates with nature; woman cooperates with God. Man was called to till the earth, to "rule over the earth"; woman to be the bearer of a life that comes from God."	cooperation freedom initiative man nature sympathy woman	Fulton J. Sheen
26e7b6c	for a woman, love is its own reason. "I love you because I love you."		Fulton J. Sheen
4834f29	Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right.	p364 tolerance wisdom	Fulton J. Sheen
c80573e	Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!"	childbirth christianity expectation family-planning happiness joy-of-marriage marriage philosophy pro-life religion spirituality unhappy-marriage	Fulton J. Sheen
bd87d06	The egocentric is always frustrated, simply because the condition of self-perfection is self-surrender. There must be a willingness to die to the lower part of self, before there can be a birth to the nobler.	christianity egocentrism philosophy self-perfection self-surrender spirituality	Fulton J. Sheen
84ae1b7	Most of us love a non-self, or something extrinsic and apart from our inner life; but a mother's love during the time she is a flesh-and-blood ciborium is not for a non-self but for one that is her very self, a perfect example of charity and love which hardly perceives a separation. Motherhood then becomes a kind of priesthood. She brings God to man by preparing the flesh in which the soul will be implanted; she brings man to God in offerin..	motherhood selflessness	Fulton J. Sheen
9522c41	Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat. Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity. But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.	jesus psychology religious resurrection	Fulton J. Sheen
29a3512	A woman never tells you why she loves; she just tells you how she loves.		Fulton J. Sheen
8441009	As all men are touched by God's love, so all are also touched by the desire for His intimacy. No one escapes this longing; we are all kings in exile, miserable without the Infinite. Those who reject the grace of God have a desire to avoid God, as those who accept it have a desire for God. The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect, but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist...The denial of Go..		Fulton J. Sheen
e2eb424	The world would hate His followers, not because of evil in their lives, but precisely because of the absence of evil or rather their goodness. Goodness does not cause hatred, but it gives occasion for hatred to manifest itself. The holier and purer a life, the more it would attract malignity and hate. Mediocrity alone survives.	faith life mediocrity p315 truth wisdom	Fulton J. Sheen
9334eff	Man wants three things; life, knowledge, and love.	life love wants	Fulton J. Sheen
9e51ab8	Because God is full of life, I imagine each morning Almighty God says to the sun, "Do it again"; and every evening to the moon and the stars, "Do it again"; and every springtime to the daisies, "Do it again"; and every time a child is born into the world asking for curtain call, that the heart of the God might once more ring out in the heart of the babe."	god	Fulton J. Sheen
92d0684	Knowing belongs to man's intellect or reason; loving belongs to his will. The object of the intellect is truth; the object of the will is goodness or love.	love truth will	Fulton J. Sheen
c74a878	Curiously enough, it is a fear of how grace will change and improve them that keeps many souls away from God. They want God to take them as they are and let them stay that way. They want Him to take away their love of riches, but not their riches--to purge them of the disgust of sin, but not of the pleasure of sin. Some of them equate goodness with indifference to evil and think that God is good if He is broad-minded or tolerant about evil...	sanctification	Fulton J. Sheen
781ca92	Whenever man attempts to do what he knows to be the Master's will, a power will be given him equal to the duty.	p221 wisdom	Fulton J. Sheen
689d630	Man is incurably curious.		Fulton J. Sheen
4d4abef	All love craves unity. As the highest peak of love in the human order is the unity of husband and wife in the flesh, so the highest unity in the Divine order is the unity of the soul and Christ in communion.	eucharist jesus mass	Fulton J. Sheen
39dc88e	The Christian soul knows it needs Divine Help and therefore turns to Him Who loved us even while we were yet sinners. Examination of conscience, instead of inducing morbidity, thereby becomes an occasion of joy. There are two ways of knowing how good and loving God is. One is by never losing Him, through the preservation of innocence, and the other is by finding Him after one has lost Him. Repentance is not self-regarding, but God-regarding..	examination-of-conscience guilt holiness repentance	Fulton J. Sheen
47c5b37	Love burdens itself with the wants and woes and losses and even the wrongs of others.	p205 sheen wisdom	Fulton J. Sheen
e92888c	It was to a virgin woman that the birth of the Son of God was announced. It was to a fallen woman that His Resurrection was announced.	mary-magdalen virgin-mary	Fulton J. Sheen
b73174e	It is easier to write a book with footnotes than the same book written so that children can understand it.	writing	Fulton J. Sheen
fb0e7b8	We are all born with the power of speech, but we need grammar. Conscience, too, needs Revelation.		Fulton J. Sheen
89b3c74	The evil in the world must not make me doubt the existence of God. There could be no evil if there were no God. Before there can be a hole in a uniform, there must be a uniform; before there is death, there must be life; before there is error, there must be truth; before there is a crime, there must be liberty and law; before there is a war, there must be peace; before there is a devil, there must be a God, rebellion against whom made the d..	evil god goodness the-devil	Fulton J. Sheen
34bfd91	Why did Our Blessed Lord use bread and wine as the elements of this Memorial? First of all, because no two substances in nature better symbolize unity than bread and wine. As bread is made from a multiplicity of grains of wheat, and wine is made from a multiplicity of grapes, so the many who believe are one in Christ. Second, no two substances in nature have to suffer more to become what they are than bread and wine. Wheat has to pass throu..	communion eucharist mass the-lord-s-table	Fulton J. Sheen
9e96b37	Head knowledge is worthless, unless accompanied by submission of the will and right action.	p40 wisdom	Fulton J. Sheen
2fab77b	The modern world, which denies personal guilt and admits only social crimes, which has no place for personal repentance but only public reforms, has divorced Christ from His Cross; the Bridegroom and Bride have been pulled apart. What God hath joined together, men have torn asunder. As a result, to the left is the Cross; to the right is Christ. Each has awaited new partners who will pick them up in a kind of second and adulterous union. Com..	jesus-christ the-cross the-west	Fulton J. Sheen
9436ed4	The nearer Christ comes to a heart, the more it becomes conscious of its guilt; it will then either ask for his mercy and find peace, or else it will turn against Him because it is not yet ready to give up its sinfulness. Thus He will separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff. Man's reaction to this Divine Presence will be the test: either it will call out all the opposition of egotistic natures, or else galvanize them into a..	jesus regeneration sinfulness	Fulton J. Sheen

Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is "timing" it waits on the right time to act,

Fulton J. Sheen

2531315

It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished.

christianity church expectations god happiness lovers marriage philosophy relationship-with-god relationships religion spirituality unhappy-marriage

Fulton J. Sheen

bcc9601

Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.

christianity criticism judgement philosophy spirituality

Fulton J. Sheen

66e8497

When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.

women

Fulton J. Sheen

251db6e

The difference between the love of a man and the love of a woman is that a man will always give reasons for loving, but a woman gives no reasons for loving.

love men-and-women reasons

Fulton J. Sheen

68d66c7

Books are the most wonderful friends in the world. When you meet them and pick them up, they are always ready to give you a few ideas. When you put them down, they never get mad; when you take them up again, they seem to enrich you all the more.

Fulton J. Sheen

a9ba67a

Far better it is for you to say: "I am a sinner," than to say: "I have no need of religion." The empty can be filled, but the self-intoxicated have no room for God."

catholicism christianity god religion sinners

Fulton J. Sheen

8894645

A teacher who cannot explain any abstract subject to a child does not himself thoroughly understand his subject; if he does not attempt to break down his knowledge to fit the child's mind, he does not understand teaching.

students teacher teaching

Fulton J. Sheen

8a62b1d

Never forget that there are only two philosophies to rule your life: the one of the cross, which starts with the fast and ends with the feast. The other of Satan, which starts with the feast and ends with the headache.

christianity god jesus-christ philosophy satan

Fulton J. Sheen

ed56ff8

A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.

Fulton J. Sheen

e534c70

Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from God, you are perfected and completed.

christianity god jesus-christ perfected-man religion spirituality

Fulton J. Sheen

bcadc45

When a child is given to his parents, a crown is made for that child in Heaven, and woe to the parents who raise a child without consciousness of that eternal crown!

god life

Fulton J. Sheen

3c4e541

We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.

Fulton J. Sheen

deca7f0

Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths.

catholicism christianity church discipline happiness imoral morality religion unhappiness

Fulton J. Sheen

9e9928d

Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: 'I am Who am.' The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: 'I am who am not.' Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.

satan sin the-devil the-enemy

Fulton J. Sheen

46c06ce

Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.

humans the-world

Fulton J. Sheen

809bfd1

A man may stand for the justice of God, but a woman stands for His Mercy.

Fulton J. Sheen

c172e6c

The mark of man is initiative, but the mark of woman is cooperation. Man talks about freedom; woman about sympathy, love, sacrifice. Man cooperates with nature; woman cooperates with God. Man was called to till the earth, to "rule over the earth"; woman to be the bearer of a life that comes from God."

cooperation freedom initiative man nature sympathy woman

Fulton J. Sheen

26e7b6c

for a woman, love is its own reason. "I love you because I love you."

Fulton J. Sheen

4834f29

Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right.

p364 tolerance wisdom

Fulton J. Sheen

c80573e

Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!"

childbirth christianity expectation family-planning happiness joy-of-marriage marriage philosophy pro-life religion spirituality unhappy-marriage

Fulton J. Sheen

bd87d06

The egocentric is always frustrated, simply because the condition of self-perfection is self-surrender. There must be a willingness to die to the lower part of self, before there can be a birth to the nobler.

christianity egocentrism philosophy self-perfection self-surrender spirituality

Fulton J. Sheen

84ae1b7

Most of us love a non-self, or something extrinsic and apart from our inner life; but a mother's love during the time she is a flesh-and-blood ciborium is not for a non-self but for one that is her very self, a perfect example of charity and love which hardly perceives a separation. Motherhood then becomes a kind of priesthood. She brings God to man by preparing the flesh in which the soul will be implanted; she brings man to God in offerin..

motherhood selflessness

Fulton J. Sheen

9522c41

Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat. Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity. But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.

jesus psychology religious resurrection

Fulton J. Sheen

29a3512

A woman never tells you why she loves; she just tells you how she loves.

Fulton J. Sheen

8441009

As all men are touched by God's love, so all are also touched by the desire for His intimacy. No one escapes this longing; we are all kings in exile, miserable without the Infinite. Those who reject the grace of God have a desire to avoid God, as those who accept it have a desire for God. The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect, but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist...The denial of Go..

Fulton J. Sheen

e2eb424

The world would hate His followers, not because of evil in their lives, but precisely because of the absence of evil or rather their goodness. Goodness does not cause hatred, but it gives occasion for hatred to manifest itself. The holier and purer a life, the more it would attract malignity and hate. Mediocrity alone survives.

faith life mediocrity p315 truth wisdom

Fulton J. Sheen

9334eff

Man wants three things; life, knowledge, and love.

life love wants

Fulton J. Sheen

9e51ab8

Because God is full of life, I imagine each morning Almighty God says to the sun, "Do it again"; and every evening to the moon and the stars, "Do it again"; and every springtime to the daisies, "Do it again"; and every time a child is born into the world asking for curtain call, that the heart of the God might once more ring out in the heart of the babe."

god

Fulton J. Sheen

92d0684

Knowing belongs to man's intellect or reason; loving belongs to his will. The object of the intellect is truth; the object of the will is goodness or love.

love truth will

Fulton J. Sheen

c74a878

Curiously enough, it is a fear of how grace will change and improve them that keeps many souls away from God. They want God to take them as they are and let them stay that way. They want Him to take away their love of riches, but not their riches--to purge them of the disgust of sin, but not of the pleasure of sin. Some of them equate goodness with indifference to evil and think that God is good if He is broad-minded or tolerant about evil...

sanctification

Fulton J. Sheen

781ca92

Whenever man attempts to do what he knows to be the Master's will, a power will be given him equal to the duty.

p221 wisdom

Fulton J. Sheen

689d630

Man is incurably curious.

Fulton J. Sheen

4d4abef

All love craves unity. As the highest peak of love in the human order is the unity of husband and wife in the flesh, so the highest unity in the Divine order is the unity of the soul and Christ in communion.

eucharist jesus mass

Fulton J. Sheen

39dc88e

The Christian soul knows it needs Divine Help and therefore turns to Him Who loved us even while we were yet sinners. Examination of conscience, instead of inducing morbidity, thereby becomes an occasion of joy. There are two ways of knowing how good and loving God is. One is by never losing Him, through the preservation of innocence, and the other is by finding Him after one has lost Him. Repentance is not self-regarding, but God-regarding..

examination-of-conscience guilt holiness repentance

Fulton J. Sheen

47c5b37

Love burdens itself with the wants and woes and losses and even the wrongs of others.

p205 sheen wisdom

Fulton J. Sheen

e92888c

It was to a virgin woman that the birth of the Son of God was announced. It was to a fallen woman that His Resurrection was announced.

mary-magdalen virgin-mary

Fulton J. Sheen

b73174e

It is easier to write a book with footnotes than the same book written so that children can understand it.

writing

Fulton J. Sheen

fb0e7b8

We are all born with the power of speech, but we need grammar. Conscience, too, needs Revelation.

Fulton J. Sheen

89b3c74

The evil in the world must not make me doubt the existence of God. There could be no evil if there were no God. Before there can be a hole in a uniform, there must be a uniform; before there is death, there must be life; before there is error, there must be truth; before there is a crime, there must be liberty and law; before there is a war, there must be peace; before there is a devil, there must be a God, rebellion against whom made the d..

evil god goodness the-devil

Fulton J. Sheen

34bfd91

Why did Our Blessed Lord use bread and wine as the elements of this Memorial? First of all, because no two substances in nature better symbolize unity than bread and wine. As bread is made from a multiplicity of grains of wheat, and wine is made from a multiplicity of grapes, so the many who believe are one in Christ. Second, no two substances in nature have to suffer more to become what they are than bread and wine. Wheat has to pass throu..

communion eucharist mass the-lord-s-table

Fulton J. Sheen

9e96b37

Head knowledge is worthless, unless accompanied by submission of the will and right action.

p40 wisdom

Fulton J. Sheen

2fab77b

The modern world, which denies personal guilt and admits only social crimes, which has no place for personal repentance but only public reforms, has divorced Christ from His Cross; the Bridegroom and Bride have been pulled apart. What God hath joined together, men have torn asunder. As a result, to the left is the Cross; to the right is Christ. Each has awaited new partners who will pick them up in a kind of second and adulterous union. Com..

jesus-christ the-cross the-west

Fulton J. Sheen

9436ed4

The nearer Christ comes to a heart, the more it becomes conscious of its guilt; it will then either ask for his mercy and find peace, or else it will turn against Him because it is not yet ready to give up its sinfulness. Thus He will separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff. Man's reaction to this Divine Presence will be the test: either it will call out all the opposition of egotistic natures, or else galvanize them into a..

jesus regeneration sinfulness

Fulton J. Sheen