💬 Quotes

"To embrace the leper was not simply an act of humanitarian charity for Francis; it was the moment he pierced the illusion of his own pride and found the true face of God in the marginalized."

"Poverty, for Francis, was never an end in itself, but rather the ultimate form of freedom—a deliberate emptying of self so that God alone could be one's true wealth and security."

"In a world torn by Crusades and commercial greed, Francis offered a revolutionary alternative: universal fraternity, recognizing even the sun, the moon, and the enemy as beloved brothers and sisters."

"The stigmata were not merely physical wounds, but the visible, outward manifestation of an interior conformity to Christ crucified, sealing a lifetime of profound mystical union."

"True preaching, as Francis understood it, relies very little on eloquent words and everything on a life completely transparent to the love and humility of God."

"Man is not truly one, but truly two."

"I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two."

"I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two."

"All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil."

"If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also."

"I let my life go on in its own groove, with a certain callousness to the good which is daily renewed, and an appetite for some habitual sin."

"I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass."

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others..."

"Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?"

"O for a muse of fire, that would ascend / The brightest heaven of invention!"

"The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, and if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it."

"I sing the body electric, The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, They will not let me go till I go with them, till I respond to them."

"I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first."

"Convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, I formed rectangles and other diagrams... to regulate my conduct."