John of the Cross Quotes

“Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation.”

“To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing.”

“In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.”

“What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love.”

“To love is to be transformed into what we love. To love God is therefore to be transformed into God.”

“Where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.”

“The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light.”

“The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union.”

“One act of thanksgiving, when things go wrong with us, is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to us.”

“We must not be a halfway Christian, for He will say, 'I would you were hot or cold.'”

“Where there is no love, pour love in, and you will draw love out.”

“The soul that is most desirous of divine wisdom is the most enlightened and advanced in it.”

“Perfect love means putting up with other people’s shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them.”

“In reality, we have never moved from the divine Wisdom; in the divine Wisdom we shall find our beginning and end.”

“To come to the pleasure you have not, you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.”

“Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.”

“The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.”

“Strike, but listen.”

“The deeper the experience of an absence of God, the greater the desire for Him.”

“What a good God you are to those who seek you!”