Saint Ignatius Loyola Quotes

#1. If, one day, I should offend God in any way, or grow remiss, though ever so little, in that which concerns His holy service and glory, I solemnly implore Him, rather let me die. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#2. It is not the finest wood that feeds the fire of Divine love, but the wood of the Cross. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#3. The picture. A great plain, comprising the entire Jerusalem district, where is the supreme Commander-in-Chief of the forces of good, Christ our Lord: another plain near Babylon, where Lucifer is, at the head of the enemy. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#4. You have given it all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and grace. That is enough for me. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#5. Occupy yourself in beholding and bewailing your own imperfections rather than contemplating the imperfections of others. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#6. Love is shown more in deeds than in words. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#7. Truth always ends by victory; it is not unassailable, but invincible. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#8. For though, outside the Exercises, we can lawfully and with merit influence every one who is probably fit to choose continence, virginity, the religious life and all manner of evangelical perfection, still in the Spiritual Exercises, when seeking the Divine Will, it is more fitting and much better, that the Creator and Lord Himself should communicate Himself to His devout soul, inflaming it with His love and praise, and disposing it for the way in which it will be better able to serve Him in future. So, he who is giving the Exercises should not turn or incline to one side or the other, but standing in the centre like a balance, leave the Creator to act immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator and Lord. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#9. The more completely we focus our attention on our Creator and Lord, the less chance there is of our being distracted by creatures. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#10. While studying at Barcelona, Ignatius was in doubt whether, after completing his studies, he should enter some Religious Order, or go from place to place, according to his custom. He decided to enter upon the religious life. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#11. Let me look at the foulness and ugliness of my body. Let me see myself as an ulcerous sore running with every horrible and disgusting poison. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#12. Among the many signs of a lively faith and hope we have in eternal life, one of the surest is not being overly sad at the death of those whom we dearly love in our Lord. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#13. He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself, or he loses his labor. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#14. After all, Ignatius of Loyola, a soldier who had killed and whored and made a thorough mess of his soul, said you could judge prayer worthwhile simply if you could act more decently, think more clearly afterward. As D.W. once told him, "Son, sometimes it's enough just to act less like a shithead. #Quote by Mary Doria Russell

#15. Love is an exchange of gifts,' Saint Ignatius had said. It was in these simple, practical, down-to-earth ways that people could show their love for each other. If the love was not there in the beginning, but only the need, such gifts made love grow. #Quote by Dorothy Day

#16. The servant of God earns half a doctorate through illness #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#17. It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#18. If you attach your heart to certain places and occupations, obedience oftentimes places you in some other place that you may not like; to be always cheerful, be always humble and obedient. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#19. To have prevented one single sin is reward enough for the labors and efforts of a whole lifetime. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#20. Satan, on the contrary, is thin, ascetic and a fanatical devotee of logic. He reads Machiavelli, Ignatius of Loyola, Marx and Hegel; he is cold and unmerciful to mankind, out of a kind of mathematical mercifulness. He is damned always to do that which is most repugnant to him: to become a slaughterer, in order to abolish slaughtering, to sacrifice lambs so that no more lambs may be slaughtered, to whip people with knouts so that they may learn not to let themselves be whipped, to strip himself of every scruple in the name of a higher scrupulousness, and to challenge the hatred of mankind because of his love for it
an abstract and geometric love. #Quote by Arthur Koestler

#21. If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#22. We ought even to hold as a fixed principle that what I see white I believe to be black, if the superior authorities define it to be so. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#23. It is one thing to be eloquent and charming in profane speech, and another when the one speaking as a religious. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#24. All his ghosts, though, were gone. Except the boy. The boy cocked his head at Joe, as if surprised he was coming closer. Joe said, "You're me?" The boy seemed confused by the question. Because he wasn't the boy anymore. He was Vivian Ignatius Brennan. Saint Viv. The Gatekeeper. The Undertaker. "There were just too many mistakes," Saint Viv said kindly. "Too late to go back and fix them all. Too late." Joe didn't even see the gun in his hand until Vivian fired the bullet into his heart. Didn't make much noise, just a soft pop. The impact swept Joe's legs out from under him, and he fell in the street. He put one hand to the cobblestone and tried to stand, but his heels wouldn't grip the stone. Blood left the hole in the center of his chest and spilled onto his lap. His lungs whistled through the hole. The getaway car pulled up behind Vivian and a woman screamed hopelessly from somewhere close by. Tomas, if you're seeing this, for Christ's #Quote by Dennis Lehane

#25. SPIRITUAL EXERCISES whereby to conquer oneself, and order one's life, without being influenced in one's decision by any inordinate affection. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#26. When Ignatius understood that God did not wish him to remain at Jerusalem, he began to consider what he should do. The plan he approved and adopted was to enter upon a course of study in order to be better fitted to save souls. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#27. Just as the commander of an army pitches his camp, studies the strength and defenses of a fortress, and then attacks it on its weakest side, in like manner, the enemy of our human nature studies from all sides our theological, cardinal, and moral virtues. Wherever he finds us weakest and most in need regarding our eternal salvation, he attacks and tries to take us by storm. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#28. We must speak to God as a friend speaks to his friend, servant to his master; now asking some favor, now acknowledging our faults, and communicating to Him all that concerns us, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires, and in all things seeking His counsel. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#29. The sky [above Tehran] was like a star-eaten black blanket, and so far as I could read them its constellations were unfamiliar. Lawrence speaks somewhere of drawing 'strength from the depths of the universe'; Malcolm Lowry speaks about the deadness of the stars except when he looked at them with a particular girl; I had neither feeling. The founder of the Jesuits used to spend many hours under the stars; it is hard to be certain whether his first stirrings of scientific speculation or pre-scientific wonder about space and the stars in their own nature were some element in his affinity with starlight, or whether for him they were only a point of departure, but in this matter I think I am about fifty years more modern than Saint Ignatius; stars mean to me roughly what they meant to Donne's generation, a bright religious sand imposing the sense of an intrusion into human language, and arousing a certain personal thirst to be specific. #Quote by Peter Levi

#30. The glory of God is humankind fully alive. #Quote by Ignatius Of Loyola

#31. The wellbeing of the head resounds throughout the whole body, and as are the Superiors, so, in turn, will their subjects be. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#32. Be slow to speak, and only after having first listened quietly, so that you may understand the meaning, leanings, and wishes of those who do speak. Thus you will better know when to speak and when to be silent. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#33. If I cannot add to my own low level of understanding, I could ill afford to try to raise that of others, seeing that it belongs to our Creator and Lord to give much or little. #Quote by Saint Ignatius

#34. Experience proves that in this life peace and satisfaction are had, not by the listless but by those who are fervent in God's service. And rightly so. For in their effort to overcome themselves and to rid themselves of self-love, they rid themselves of the roots of all passion and unrest. #Quote by Saint Ignatius