There is no one on earth, no matter how holy, without some inclination to evil. This is the trial of good souls and a subject of merit (V:473).

A plowman has to wait a long time before seeing the fruits of his plowing, and sometimes he does not see the abundant harvest his sowing has produced (V:463).

Since all these graces have been prepared for you, and our good God, who grants them, desires nothing so much as to lavish them on those who truly want to make use of them, what is there to prevent you from being filled with them, destroying by their power all that remains of the old man in you and the darkness and ignorance of sin? (V:462)

You know the will of God cannot be made known to us more clearly in events than when they happen without our intervention or in a way other than we requested (V:459).

Trust firmly in God’s guidance and encourage your people to have this trust in the present disturbances; the storm will abate, and the calm will be greater and more pleasing than ever (V:454).

May God be pleased to strengthen you in these hardships, enlighten you in your doubts, and bring you safely to the place where Providence intends to lead your little bark (V:454).

I ask Our Lord to be your light and strength in all the events of this life (V:451).

God raises up and puts down wherever He pleases and whomsoever He wishes. It is for us to adore his ways and trust in his goodness (V:450).

God sometimes allows these great disturbances, which unsettle the most secure States, to remind earthly sovereigns that they are answerable to His kingship and are just as dependent as their own subjects (V:449-450).

Mortification, like all the other virtues, is acquired only by repeated acts (V:443).