There is no affliction, trial, or labor difficult to endure, when we consider the torments and sufferings which Our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us.
Teresa Of AvilaRead
It is a great folly to be willing to violate the friendship of God, rather than the law of human friendship.
Interpretation
Prioritizing human relationships over divine principles can lead to great folly.
Teresa of Avila emphasizes the importance of maintaining a strong relationship with God over adhering to societal norms or the laws of human friendship. She suggests that compromising one's spiritual values for the sake of earthly relationships ultimately leads to misguided priorities and folly.
In practice
In a discussion about ethical dilemmas, one could quote this to emphasize the importance of spiritual integrity.
There is no affliction, trial, or labor difficult to endure, when we consider the torments and sufferings which Our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us.
How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer.
What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we will or no, must ever bear us company?
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
If we do not use great care to mortify our will, there are many things which can deprives us of the holy freedom of spirit that we are seeking in order to fly more freely to our Creator, without always being bogged down with the clay of this earth. Moreover, there can never be solid virtue in a soul that is attached to its own will.
I say the same of humility and of all the virtues; the wiles of the devil are terrible, he will run a thousand times round hell if by so doing he can make us believe that we have a single virtue which we have not. And he is right, for such ideas are very harmful, and such imaginary virtues, when they come from this source, are never unaccompanied by vainglory; just as those which God gives are free both from this and from pride.
...of two simple men I saw today on the pier in the midst of the crowd, parting the parting of dear friends, the one to remain hung on the other's neck and passionately kissed him. While the one to depart tightly pressed the one to remain in his arms.
No friend to Love like a long voyage at sea.
Strangers are exciting, their mystery never ends. But, there's nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.
The reason for my starting a diary is that I have no real friend.
it is the ordinary lot of people to have no friends if they themselves care for nobody
It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends.
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