Quotes by St. Jerome

A friendship that can cease has never been real.

The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for theologians to swim in without ever reaching the bottom.

Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

A false interpretation of Scripture causes that the gospel of the Lord becomes the gospel of man, or, which is worse, of the devil.

A vice in the heart is an idol on the altar.

It is our part to seek,

His to grant what we ask;

ours to make a beginning,

His to bring it to completion;

ours to offer what we can,

His to finish what we cannot.

To saints their very slumber is a prayer.

Sometimes the character of the mistress is inferred from the dress of her maids.

The Roman world is in collapse but we do not bend our neck.

For the preservation of chastity, an empty and rumbling stomach and fevered lungs are indispensable.

No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow.

Vanity is truly the motive power that moves humanity, and it is flattery that greases the wheels.

And as regards Adam and Eve we must maintain that before the fall they were virgins in Paradise: but after they sinned, and were cast out of Paradise, they were immediately married.

Without doubt, the Lord grants all favors which are asked of Him in Mass, provided they be fitting for us.

Endeavor to have always in your hand a pious book, that with this shield you may defend yourself against bad thoughts.

When I could not see the light with my blind eyes, I blamed not my eyes, but the sun.

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.

The Church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it.

If then you remain constant in faith in the face of trial, the Lord will give you peace and rest for a time in this world, and forever in the next.

No one loves to tell of scandal except to him who loves to hear it. Learn, then, to rebuke and check the detracting tongue by showing that you do not listen to it with pleasure.

Do not let your deeds belie your words, lest when you speak in church someone may say to himself, Why do you not practice what you preach?

The best advice that I can give you is this. Church-traditions -- especially when they do not run counter to the faith -- are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down; and the use of one church is not to be annulled because it is contrary to that of another.

Preferring to store her money in the stomachs of the needy rather than hide it in a purse.

Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God.

Even while living in the world, the heart of Mary was so filled with motherly tenderness and compassion for men that no-one ever suffered so much for their own pains, as Mary suffered for the pains of her children.

For all riches come from iniquity, and unless one were to lose another could not gain. Hence the common adage seems to me to be very true: The rich man is unjust or the heir of an unjust one.

Begin now what you will be hereafter.

Whoever eats the Lamb outside this House is profane.

Someone may ask, 'How is justice greater than all the other virtues?' The other virtues gratify the one who possesses them; justice does not give pleasure to the one possessing it, but instead pleases others.

Matrimony is always a vice, all that can be done is to excuse it and sanctify it; therefore it was made a religious sacrament.

Woman is the gate of the devil, the road to iniquity, the sting of the scorpion, in a word, a dangerous species.

If there is but little water in the stream, it is the fault, not of the channel, but of the source.

The line, often adopted by strong men in controversy, of justifying the means by the end.

Malice swallows the greatest part of its own venom.

Early impressions are hard to eradicate from the mind. When once wool has been dyed purple, who can restore it to its previous whiteness?

Marriage fills the Earth, virginity Heaven.

Strictly speaking, one should not even rightly compare virginity to marriage because you cannot make a comparison between two things if one is good and the other evil.

Keep always busy so that the devil will find you always engaged.

Wine is the first weapon that devils use in attacking the young.

An ethic is not an ethic, and a value not a value without somesacrifice for it. Something given up, something not gained.

Haste is of the Devil.

So valuable to heaven is the dignity of the human soul that every member of the human race has a guardian angel from the moment the person begins to be.

Everything has its drawbacks, as the man said when his mother-in-law died, and they came down upon him for the funeral expenses.

Those who persevere in sin are those who are held in abhorrence by God, but those who abandon the ways of sin are loved by the Lord.

A fat stomach never breeds fine thoughts.

Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.

Action without a name, a 'who' attached to it, is meaningless.

Let your daughter have first of all the book of Psalms for holiness of heart, and be instructed in the Proverbs of Solomon for her godly life.

Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a be general natural law.

Being over seventy is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and the dying as on a battlefield.

I am like the sick sheep that strays from the rest of the flock. Unless the Good Shepherd takes me on His shoulders and carries me back to His fold, my steps will falter, and in the very effort of rising, my feet will give way.

What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way.

They talk like angels but they live like men.

Keep doing some kind of work, that the devil may always find you employed.

The friendship that can cease has never been real.

Marriage is good for those who are afraid to sleep alone at night.

I am that prodigal son who wasted all the portion entrusted to me by my father. But I have not yet fallen at my father's knees. I have not yet begun to put away from me the enticements of my former riotous living.

Why do you not practice what you preach.

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.