Inspirational quotes by Saint Philip Neri to improve our spiritual life

Happy is the youth, because he has time before him to do good.

If young men would preserve their purity, let them avoid bad company.

Young men should be very careful to avoid idleness.

When tribulations, infirmities, and contradictions come, we must not run away in a fright, but vanquish them like men.

In order to preserve their purity, young men should frequent the Sacraments, and especially confession.

For young men to make sure of persevering, it is absolutely necessary that they should avoid wicked companions, and be familiar with good ones.

Let young men be cheerful, and indulge in the recreations proper to their age, provided they keep out of the way of sin.

To mortify one passion, no matter how small, is a greater help in the spiritual life than many abstinences, fasts, and disciplines. 

He who wishes to be wise without the true Wisdom, or saved without the Saviour, is not well, but sick – is not wise, but a fool. 


A joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one. 

Perfection does not consist in such outward things as shedding tears and the like, but in true and solid virtues. 

When a man is freed from a temptation or any other distress, let him take great care to show fitting gratitude to God for the benefit he has received. 

There is nothing more to the purpose for exciting a spirit of prayer, than the reading of spiritual books. 

Let a man frequent the holy Sacraments, go to sermons, and be often reading the Lives of Saints.

 

Let a man always think that he has God before his eyes.



 
Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast. 

When a man is in an occasion of sin, let him look what he is doing, get himself out of the occasion, and avoid the sin. 

An excellent method of preserving ourselves from relapsing into serious faults, is to say every evening, “To-morrow I may be dead.”
Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things. 

There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer.

A man without prayer is an animal without the use of reason.

 

The fruit we ought to get from prayer, is to do what is pleasing to the Lord.

The greatest help to perseverance in the spiritual life is the habit of prayer, especially under the direction of our confessor. 

To acquire and preserve the virtue of chastity, we have need of a good and experienced confessor.

The true preparation for prayer consists in the exercise of mortification; for he who wishes to give himself up to prayer without mortification, is like a bird wishing to fly before it is fledged. 

We must pray incessantly for the gift of perseverance. 

We must often remember what Christ said, that not he who begins, but he that perseveres to the end, shall be saved.

Without prayer a man will not persevere long in spirituality; we must have recourse to this most powerful means of salvation every day.

When fathers have given their sons a good education, and put everything clearly and distinctly in train for them, the sons who succeed them, and continue to follow the road marked out for them, will have the advantage of seeing their family persevere in holy ways, and in the fear of God. 

One of the most efficacious means of keeping ourselves chaste, is to have compassion for those who fall through their frailty, and never to boast in the least of being free, but with all humility to acknowledge that whatever we have is from the mercy of God. 


We should be less alarmed for one who is tempted in the flesh, and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid the occasions. 

When we go to confession, we should accuse ourselves of our worst sins first, and of those things which we are most ashamed of, because by this means we put the devil to greater confusion, and reap more fruit from our confession.


One of the very best means of obtaining humility, is sincere and frequent confession.

In trying to get rid of bad habits, it is of the greatest importance not to put off going to confession after a fall, and also to keep to the same confessor.

The true way to advance in holy virtues, is to persevere in a holy cheerfulness.  

It is very necessary to be cheerful, but we must not on that account give in to a buffooning spirit.

Buffoonery incapacitates a person from receiving any additional spirituality from God. 

Christian joy is a gift of God flowing from a good conscience.

To preserve our cheerfulness amid sicknesses and troubles, is a sign of a right and good spirit.

As much love as we give to creatures, just so much we steal from the Creator.  

He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.  

Give me ten truly detached men. and I will convert the world with them.   

Not to know how to deny our soul its own wishes, is to foment a very hot-bed of vices.

The perfection of a Christian consists in mortifying his will for the love of Christ. Where there is no great mortification, there is no great sanctity. 


In this life there is no purgatory; it is either hell or paradise; for to him who serves God truly, every trouble and infirmity turns into consolations, and through all kinds of trouble he has a paradise within himself even in this world: and he who does not serve God truly, and gives himself up to sensuality, has one hell in this world, and another in the next. 

He who desires anything but God deceives himself, and he who loves anything but God errs miserably.  


Experience shows that men given to carnal sins are converted sooner than those who are given to avarice.  


He who wishes to attain to perfection must have no attachment to anything.

A virtuous life consists in mortifying vices, sins, bad thoughts, and evil affections, and in exercising ourselves in the acquisition of holy virtues. 


The true servant of God acknowledges no other country but heaven.


Before going to confession or taking counsel with our director, it will be very useful to pray for a sincere good will to become a really holy man. 

In temptations of the flesh, a Christian ought to have immediate recourse to God, make the sign of the cross over his heart three times, and say, “Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”  

As to temptations, some are mastered by flying from them, some by resisting them, and some by despising them.

Christ died for sinners; we must take heart, therefore, and hope that Paradise will be ours, provided only we repent of our sins, and do good.  

Be devout to the Madonna, keep yourself from sin, and God will deliver you from your evils. 

When a man knows how to break down his own will and to deny his soul what it desires, he has got a good degree in virtue. 


Nothing helps a man more than prayer.  


The great thing is to become saints. 

In order to enter Paradise we must be well justified and well purified.


Let the young man look after the flesh, and the old man after avarice, and we shall all be saints together.

The hour is finished – we may say the same of the year; but the time to do good is not finished yet.

“Can you feel the fragrance of Paradise which diffuses Itself from the Tabernacle?"
Maxims and Sayings by Saint Philip Neri