Brother Lawrence Quotes

“Let us think often that our only business in this life is to please God. Perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity. ”
― Brother Lawrence

“ One of the purest souls ever to live on this fallen planet was Nicholas Herman, known as Brother Lawrence. He wrote very little, but what he wrote has seemed to several generations of Christians to be so rare and so beautiful as to deserve a place near the top among the world's great books of devotion. The writings of Brother Lawrence are the ultimate in simplicity; ideas woven like costly threads to make a pattern of great beauty. ”
― A.W. Tozer

“Good when He gives, supremely good; Nor less when He denies: Afflictions, from His sovereign hand, Are blessings in disguise. [. . .]

That useless thoughts spoil all: that the mischief began there; but that we ought to reject them, as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or our salvation; and return to our communion with GOD.”
― Brother Lawrence

“As for the wretchedness and sins about which he heard daily, instead of being astonished by them, he was on the contrary surprised that there were not still more of them, considering the malice of which the sinner is capable. He prayed for the sinner and then did not trouble himself any more, knowing that God could change the sinner when it was His will to do so.”
― Abbé de Beaufort, Grand Vicar of the Cardinal of Noailles

“That we ought to give ourselves up to GOD, with regard both to things temporal and spiritual, and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will, whether he lead us by suffering or by consolation, for all would lie equal to a soul truly resigned.”
― Brother Lawrence, Practising the Presence of God

“That to arrive at such resignation as GOD requires, we should watch attentively over all the passions which mingle as well in spiritual things as in those of a grosser nature; that GOD would give light concerning those passions to those who truly desire to serve Him.”
― Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God