Joseph Ratzinger

“The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”

“Truth is not determined by a majority vote.”

“We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God.”

“It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.”

“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism... looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards.”

“Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.”

“If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great.”

“Each of us is a result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.”

“The human person finds his perfection in seeking and loving what is true and good.”

“To be saints is not a privilege for the few, but a vocation for everyone.”

“Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want. Freedom is the right to do what you ought.”

“Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation.”

“The true measure of humanity is in relation to suffering and to the sufferer.”

“A society without God will not be able to find any agreement on values, and will lose its way.”

“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

“Dear young people, do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything.”

“One who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.”

“To evangelize, one must speak the language of men.”