January 31st
Book Two, Chapter 6
Of the Joy of a Good Conscience

An evil conscience is always fearful and unquiet; sweetly shall you rest, if your heart upbraids you not....Great tranquility of heart has he who cares neither for praise nor blame.  Easily will he be content and at peace whose conscience is undefiled.  You are not more holy for being praised, nor the worse for being blamed.  What you art, you are; nor can you be said to be greater than God sees you to be.  If you attend diligently to what you are interiorly, you will not regard what men say of you.

January 30th
Book Two, Chapter  5
Of Self-Consideration

We may not trust too much to ourselves; for grace and understanding are often wanting to us.  There is in us but little light, and this we soon lose by negligence.  Oftentimes, we are quite unconscious how interiorly blind we are....You will never be interior and devout unless you pass over in silence other men's affairs, and look especially to yourself...Where are you when you are absent from yourself?...The soul that loves God despises all things that are less than God.  God only, the eternal and infinite, who fills all things, is the solace of the soul and the true joy of the heart.

January 29th
Book Two, Chapter 4
Of a Pure Mind and a Simple Intention

By two wings is man lifted above earthly things, viz., by simplicity and purity.  Simplicity must be in the intention, purity in the affection.  Simplicity aims at God, purity apprehends Him and tastes Him....If there is joy in the world, truly the man of pure heart possesses it.  And if there be anywhere tribulation and distress, an evil conscience the more readily experiences it.

January 28th
Book Two, Chapter 3
Of the Good Peaceable Man

He that is in perfect peace suspects no man.  But he that is discontented and disturbed is agitated by various suspicions; he has neither rest himself, nor suffers others to rest.....to be able to live peacefully with the hard and the perverse, or with the undisciplined and those who contradict us, is a great grace, and a highly commendable and manly thing....Such a one is conqueror of himself and lord of the world, the friend of Christ and an heir of heaven.

January 27th
Book Two, Chapter 2
Of Humble Submission

Make no great account of who may be for you or against you, but mind and take care that God be with you in everything you do....It belongs to God to help us and deliver us from all confusion.  Many a time it is a great advantage to us, for the keeping us in greater humility, that others know and reprehend our faults.

January 26th
Book Two, Chapter 1
Of Interior Conversation

Turn to the Lord with your whole heart, and quit this miserable world, and your soul will find rest.  Learn to slight exterior things, and to give yourself to interior things, and you will see the kingdom of God come within you....There is nothing that so defiles and entangles the heart of man as an impure attachment to created things.  If you will refuse exterior consolations, then you will be able to apply your mind to heavenly things, and experience frequent interior joy.

January 25th
Book One, Chapter 25
Of the Fervent Amendment of Our Whole Life

 There is one thing that keeps many back from spiritual progress, and from fervor in amendment; namely, a dread of the difficulty or of the labor that is necessary in the struggle.
And assuredly they especially advance beyond others in virtue, who strive the most manfully to overcome the very things which are the hardest and most contrary to them....
Watch over yourself, stir yourself up, admonish yourself, and whatever may become of others, neglect not yourself.