The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume 1 of 2 Quotes

“To endure all things, with an equable and peaceful mind, not only brings with it many blessings to the soul; but it also enables us, in the midst of our difficulties, to have a clear judgment about them, and to minister the fitting remedy for them.”
― Juan de la Cruz, The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume 1 of 2: The Ascent of Mount Carmel - The Dark Night of the Soul.

“Miserable man that I am, what fellowship hath my perverseness with Thy uprightness ? Thou art truly good, I wicked; Thou full of compassion, I impious; Thou holy, I miserable; Thou just, I unjust; Thou art light, lam blind; Thou art life, and I am dead; Thou art medicine, I am sick; Thou supreme truth, and I utter vanity.’ It is, therefore, supreme ignorance for anyone to think that he can ever attain to the high estate of union with God before he casts away from him the desire of natural things, and of supernatural also, so far as it concerns self-love, because the distance between them and the state of perfection is the very greatest. For Christ our Lord hath said, ‘ Every one of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be My disciple.’  The doctrine of Christ which He came into the world to teach, is contempt of all things, that we may thereby have power to receive the reward of the Spirit of God. For he who does not withdraw himself from the things of the world, is not qualified to receive the Spirit of God in the pure transformation.”
― San Juan de la Cruz, The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume 1 of 2: The Ascent of Mount Carmel - The Dark Night of the Soul.

“The reason, then, why some spiritually-minded persons never enter into the true joys of the spirit, is, that they never wholly necessary, cease to rejoice in outward and visible things.”
― Juan de la Cruz, The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume 1 of 2: The Ascent of Mount Carmel - The Dark Night of the Soul.

“For the soul that is blind considers falsehood to be falsehood no longer, evil not to be evil, because it puts darkness for light, and light for darkness, and falls into endless disorders.”
― Juan de la Cruz, The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume 1 of 2: The Ascent of Mount Carmel - The Dark Night of the Soul.

“So, then, as such water mingled with mud becomes foul, so the soul whose affections are set on created things becomes polluted; for then it resembles them.”
― Juan de la Cruz, The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume 1 of 2: The Ascent of Mount Carmel - The Dark Night of the Soul.