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Virtue does not consist in apprehensions and feelings of God, however sublime they may be, or in any similar experience. On the contrary, it comprises... deep humility, contempt for themselves and all things. All heavenly visions, revelations, and feelings are not worth as much as the least act of humility. Consequently souls should not look for their happiness in these supernatural apprehensions.

Only by means of faith in divine light exceeding all understanding does God manifest Himself to the soul. The more intense a man's faith, the closer is His union with God.

The sum of perfection: forgetfulness of creation, remembrance of the creator, attention to what is within and to be loving the beloved.

As the soul abode in solitude, abandoning all created help and consolation in order to obtain fellowship and union with the Beloved, it deserved thereby the peace of solitude in the Beloved, in whom it reposes alone, undisturbed by any anxiety.

All the goodness we possess is lent to us, and God considers it His own work. God and His work is God.

As we said, the soul is not united with God in this life through understanding, or through enjoyment, or through imagination, or through any other sense; but only faith, hope, and charity (according to the intellect, memory, and will) can unite the soul with God in this life.

If you want to find a hidden treasure you must enter the hiding place secretly, and once you have discovered it, you will also be hidden just as the treasure is hidden. Since, then, your beloved Bridegroom is the treasure hidden in a field for which the wise merchant sold all his possessions [Mt. 13:44], and that field is your soul, in order to find him you should forget all your possessions and all creatures and hide in the secret inner room of your spirit and there, closing the door behind you (your will to all things), you should pray to your Father in secret [Mt. 6:6]. Remaining hidden with him, you will experience him in hiding, that is, in a way transcending all language and feeling.

And I saw a river over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the name of that river was suffering...and then I saw a boat which carried souls across the river, and the name of the boat was Love.

I didn't know You, my Lord, because I still desired to know and relish things.

Blessed is he who, setting aside his own liking and inclination, considers things according to reason and justice before doing them.

If a person has more patience in suffering and more forbearance in going without satisfaction, it is a sign that he is more proficient in virtue.

The soul cannot reach these hidden treasures unless it first passes through the thicket of interior and exterior sufferings. For even such knowledge of the mysteries of Christ as is possible in this life cannot be had without great suffering, and without many intellectual and moral gifts, and previous spiritual exercises. All these though are far inferior to the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ, and are merely a preparation for it.