“What gas is to a machine, so is the heart to the spiritual life. Whenever man does something from the heart, he’s not exhausted by it. For this reason, whenever people ask me what they should study, I tell them instead what they should love. In particular certain professions, like ‘doctor’, and ‘teacher’, require that those doing them love the work a lot. This is the same in the spiritual life. The heart must participate in prayer”.

“The spiritual life requires a great deal of self denial, and of love of virtue for virtue’s sake”.

“When someone has low morale, we should give him courage and raise him up. However, when someone’s morale is high and he has egotism, we ought to humble him.”