Fulton John Sheen was an American bishop of the Catholic Church, religious leader, evangelist, and writer known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Inspirational Fulton J. Sheen quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.
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Famous Fulton J. Sheen Quotes
Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn. – Fulton J. Sheen
Love is a mutual self-giving which ends in self-recovery. – Fulton J. Sheen
Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right. – Fulton J. Sheen
The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction. – Fulton J. Sheen
Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, ‘God is hard to find. – Fulton J. Sheen
Love is the key to the mystery. Love by its very nature is not selfish, but generous. It seeks not its own, but the good of others. The measure of love is not the pleasure it gives-that is the way the world judges it-but the joy and peace it can purchase for others. – Fulton J. Sheen
Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing” it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way. – Fulton J. Sheen
Most of us do not like to look inside ourselves for the same reason we don’t like to open a letter that has bad news. – Fulton J. Sheen
Satan always tempts the pure – the others are already his. – Fulton J. Sheen
A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults. – Fulton J. Sheen
Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace unless there is soul peace. World wars are only projections of the conflicts waged inside the souls of men and women, for nothing happens in the external world that has not first happened within a soul. – Fulton J. Sheen
The life of each and every one of us has been written. The crucifix is my autobiography. The blood is the ink. The nails the pen. The skin the parchment. On every line of that body I can trace my life. In the crown of thorns I can read my pride. In the hands that are dug with nails, I can read avarice and greed. In the flesh hanging from him like purple rags, I can read my lust. In feet that are fettered, I can find the times that I ran away and would not let him follow. Any sin that you can think of is written there. – Fulton J. Sheen
The Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that order. – Fulton J. Sheen
It is not particularly difficult to find thousands who will spend two or three hours a day in exercising, but if you ask them to bend their knees to God in five minutes of prayer they protest that it is too long. – Fulton J. Sheen
Judge the Catholic Church not by those who barely live by its spirit, but by the example of those who live closest to it. – Fulton J. Sheen
Your unhappiness is not due to your want of a fortune or high position or fame or sufficient vitamins. It is due not to a want of something outside of you, but to a want of something inside you. You were made for perfect happiness. No wonder everything short of God disappoints you. – Fulton J. Sheen
If you do not worship God, you worship something, and nine times out of ten it will be yourself. – Fulton J. Sheen
When you are getting kicked from the rear it means you are in front. – Fulton J. Sheen
Truth must be sought at all costs, but separate isolated truths will not do. Truth is like life; it has to be taken on its entirety or not at all… We must welcome truth even if it reproaches and inconveniences us — even if it appears in the place where we thought it could not be found. – Fulton J. Sheen
Our Lord did not ask us to give up the things of earth, but to exchange them for better things. – Fulton J. Sheen
The world is rapidly being divided into two camps, the comradeship of anti-Christ and the brotherhood of Christ. The lines between these two are being drawn. How long the battle will be we know not whether swords will have to be unsheathed we know not whether blood will have to be shed we know not whether it will be an armed conflict we know not. But in a conflict between truth and darkness, truth cannot lose. – Fulton J. Sheen
The old liberal rebelled against taxation without responsibility, the new liberal wants the taxation as a handout without responsibility. – Fulton J. Sheen
Before the sin, Satan assures us that it is of no consequence; after the sin, he persuades us that it is unforgivable. – Fulton J. Sheen
Not only were the Jews expecting the birth of a Great King, a Wise Man and a Saviour, but Plato and Socrates also spoke of the Logos and of the Universal Wise Man ‘yet to come’. Confucius spoke of ‘the Saint’; the Sibyls, of a ‘Universal King’; the Greek dramatist, of a saviour and redeemer to unloose man from the ‘primal eldest curse’. All these were on the Gentile side of the expectation. What separates Christ from all men is that first He was expected; even the Gentiles had a longing for a deliverer, or redeemer. This fact alone distinguishes Him from all other religious leaders. – Fulton J. Sheen
Advertising tries to stimulate our sensuous desires, converting luxuries into necessities, but it only intensifies man’s inner misery. The business world is bent on creating hungers which its wares never satisfy, and thus it adds to the frustrations and broken minds of our times. – Fulton J. Sheen
Nothing is more destined to create deep-seated anxieties in people than the false assumption that life should be free from anxieties. – Fulton J. Sheen
Most of us love a non-self, or something extrinsic and apart from our inner life; but a mother’s love during the time she is a flesh-and-blood ciborium is not for a non-self but for one that is her very self, a perfect example of charity and love which hardly perceives a separation. Motherhood then becomes a kind of priesthood. She brings God to man by preparing the flesh in which the soul will be implanted; she brings man to God in offering the child back again to the Creator. – Fulton J. Sheen
You must remember to love people and use things, rather than to love things and use people. – Fulton J. Sheen
No man discovers anything big if he does not make himself small. – Fulton J. Sheen
Charity is to be measured, not by what one has given away, but by what one has left. – Fulton J. Sheen
If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hated. – Fulton J. Sheen
Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them. – Fulton J. Sheen
The fact the enemies of God must face is that modern civilization has conquered the world, but in doing so has lost its soul. And in losing its soul it will lose the very world it gained. Even our own so-called Liberal culture in these United States which has tried to avoid complete secularization by leaving little zones of individual freedom is in danger of forgetting that these zones were preserved only because religion was in their soul. And as religion fades so will freedom, for only where the spirit of God is, is there liberty. – Fulton J. Sheen
Love was meant to be also a sign, a symbol, a messenger, a telltale of the Divine. Love is a messenger from God saying that every human affection and every ecstasy of love are sparks from the great flame of love that is God. – Fulton J. Sheen
All badness is spoiled goodness. A bad apple is a good apple that became rotten. Because evil has no capital of its own, it is a parasite that feeds on goodness. – Fulton J. Sheen
Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked. – Fulton J. Sheen
Evil is thus a kind of parasite on goodness. If there were no good by which to measure things, evil could not exist. Men sometimes forget this, and say, there is so much evil in the world that there cannot be a God. They are forgetting that, if there were no God, they would have no way of distinguishing evil from goodness. The very concept of evil admits and recognizes a Standard, a Whole, a Rule, an Order. Nobody would say that his automobile was out of order if he did not have a conception of how an automobile ought to run. – Fulton J. Sheen
To tell a woman who is forty, “You look like sixteen,” is boloney. The blarney way of saying it is “Tell me how old you are, I should like to know at what age women are the most beautiful. – Fulton J. Sheen
Humility is dependence on God as pride is independence of Him. The humble soul is always the thankful soul. – Fulton J. Sheen
Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right. – Fulton J. Sheen
Help someone in distress and you lighten your own burden; the very joy of alleviating the sorrow of another is the lessening of one’s own. – Fulton J. Sheen
It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy. Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives. Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation and principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times. – Fulton J. Sheen
Modern prophets say that our economics have failed us. No! It is not our economics which have failed; it is man who has failed-man who has forgotten God. Hence no manner of economic or political readjustment can possibly save our civilization; we can be saved only by a renovation of the inner man, only by a purging of our hearts and souls; for only by seeking first the Kingdom of God and His Justice will all these other things be added unto us. – Fulton J. Sheen
Modern man has so long preached a doctrine of false tolerance; he has so long believed that right and wrong were only differences in a point of view, that now when evil works itself out in practice he is paralyzed to do anything against it. – Fulton J. Sheen
Most commit the same mistake with God that they do with their friends: they do all the talking. – Fulton J. Sheen
There are ultimately only two possible adjustments to life; one is to suit our lives to principles; the other is to suit principles to our lives. If we do not live as we think, we soon begin to think as we live. The method of adjusting moral principles to the way men live is just a perversion of the order of things. – Fulton J. Sheen
The Rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men. – Fulton J. Sheen
Evil may have its hour, but God will have His day. – Fulton J. Sheen
In every friendship hearts grow and entwine themselves together, so that the two hearts seem to make only one heart with only a common thought. That is why separation is so painful; it is not so much two hearts separating, but one being torn asunder. – Fulton J. Sheen
Joy is not the same as pleasure or happiness. A wicked and evil man may have pleasure, while any ordinary mortal is capable of being happy. Pleasure generally comes from things, and always through the senses; happiness comes from humans through fellowship. Joy comes from loving God and neighbor. Pleasure is quick and violent, like a flash of lightning. Joy is steady and abiding, like a fixed star. Pleasure depends on external circumstances, such as money, food, travel, etc. Joy is independent of them, for it comes from a good conscience and love of God. – Fulton J. Sheen
There are two ways of waking up in the morning. One is to say, ‘Good morning, God,’ and the other is to say, ‘Good God, morning’! – Fulton J. Sheen
Let those who think that the Church pays too much attention to Mary give heed to the fact that Our Blessed Lord Himself gave ten times as much of His life to her as He gave to His Apostles. – Fulton J. Sheen
Books are the most wonderful friends in the world. When you meet them and pick them up, they are always ready to give you a few ideas. When you put them down, they never get mad; when you take them up again, they seem to enrich you all the more. – Fulton J. Sheen
Pride is the king of vices…it is the first of the pallbearers of the soul…other vices destroy only their opposite virtues, as wantonness destroys chastity; greed destroys temperance; anger destroys gentleness; but pride destroys all virtues. – Fulton J. Sheen
America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance – it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded. – Fulton J. Sheen
There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be. – Fulton J. Sheen
Man wants three things; life, knowledge, and love. – Fulton J. Sheen
Today (1950), the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world Power. – Fulton J. Sheen
God does not love us because we are valuable. We are valuable because God loves us. – Fulton J. Sheen
When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women. – Fulton J. Sheen
The humble, simple souls, who are little enough to see the bigness of God in the littleness of a Babe, are therefore the only ones who will ever understand the reason of His visitation. He came to this poor earth of ours to carry on an exchange; to say to us, as only the Good God could say: ‘you give me your humanity, and I will give you my Divinity; you give me your time, and I will give you My eternity; you give me your broken heart, and I will give you Love; you give me your nothingness, and I will give you My all. – Fulton J. Sheen
Prayer begins by talking to God, but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul’s language. – Fulton J. Sheen
Freedom does not mean that right to do whatever we please, but rather to do as we ought. The right to do whatever we please reduces freedom to a physical power and forgets that freedom is a moral power. – Fulton J. Sheen
Civilization is always in danger when those who have never learned to obey are given the right to command. – Fulton J. Sheen
Our happiest times are those in which we forget ourselves, usually in being kind to someone else. That tiny moment of self-abdication is an act of true humility: the man who loses himself finds himself and finds his happiness. – Fulton J. Sheen
It’s impossible to lose your footing when you’re on your knees. – Fulton J. Sheen
If you do not live what you believe, you will end up believing what you live. – Fulton J. Sheen
The egocentric is always frustrated, simply because the condition of self-perfection is self-surrender. There must be a willingness to die to the lower part of self, before there can be a birth to the nobler. If you do not live what you believe, you will end up believing what you live. – Fulton J. Sheen
Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: ‘I am Who am.’ The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: ‘I am who am not.’ Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side. – Fulton J. Sheen
God has given different gifts to different people. There is no basis for feeling inferior to another who has a different gift. Once it is realized that we shall be judged by the gift we have received, rather than the gift we have not, one is completely delivered from a false sense of inferiority. – Fulton J. Sheen
Live each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. So climb slowly, enjoying each passing moment; and then the view from the summit will serve a more rewarding climax for your journey. – Fulton J. Sheen
There is no other subject on which the average mind is so much confused as the subject of tolerance and intolerance… Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to principles. Intolerance applies only to principles, but never to persons. – Fulton J. Sheen
All love craves unity. As the highest peak of love in the human order is the unity of husband and wife in the flesh, so the highest unity in the Divine order is the unity of the soul and Christ in communion. – Fulton J. Sheen
Believe the incredible and you can do the impossible. – Fulton J. Sheen
The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host. – Fulton J. Sheen
A Catholic may sin and sin as badly as anyone else, but no genuine Catholic ever denies he is a sinner. A Catholic wants his sins forgiven – not excused or sublimated. – Fulton J. Sheen
Many souls fail to find God because they want a religion which will remake society without remaking themselves. – Fulton J. Sheen
Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius. – Fulton J. Sheen
The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away. – Fulton J. Sheen
Baloney is flattery laid on so thick it cannot be true, and blarney is flattery so thin we love it. – Fulton J. Sheen
Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love? – Fulton J. Sheen
The proud man counts his newspaper clippings, the humble man his blessings. – Fulton J. Sheen
Life is like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale, is registered and recorded. – Fulton J. Sheen
I feel it is time that I also pay tribute to my four writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. – Fulton J. Sheen
Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals. – Fulton J. Sheen
Men work harder and more readily when they labor on that which is their own. – Fulton J. Sheen
Atheism, nine times out of ten, is born from the womb of a bad conscience. Disbelief is born of sin, not of reason. – Fulton J. Sheen
Liberty is no heirloom. It requires the daily bread of self-denial, the salt of law and, above all, the backbone of acknowledging responsibility for our deeds. – Fulton J. Sheen
All love craves unity. – Fulton J. Sheen
If all things in this universe exist, it is because they participate in the Being of God, if there are some things with life, it is because they are reflections of the life of God; if there are beings endowed with intellect and will – like men and angels – it’s because they are a participation of the Sovereign Intellect which is God. – Fulton J. Sheen
If there is continuity in the universe, it is fitting that there should be intelligent beings without bodies which are called angels. – Fulton J. Sheen
A smile across the aisle of a bus in the morning could save a suicide later in the day. – Fulton J. Sheen
The forgiveness of God is one thing, but the proof that we want that forgiveness is the energy we expend to make amends for the wrong. – Fulton J. Sheen
To see a priest making his meditation before Mass does more for an altar boy’s vocation than a thousand pieces of inspirational literature. – Fulton J. Sheen
Much suffering in hospitals is wasted. – Fulton J. Sheen
The science of a religious man must be scientific; the religion of a scientific man must be religious. – Fulton J. Sheen
Communism is an aggressive religion of the species. – Fulton J. Sheen
Counsel involving right and wrong should never be sought from a man who does not say his prayers. – Fulton J. Sheen
The slave states of Western world are an outgrowth of monopolistic capitalism – an economic system which is opposed to the wide distribution of private property in many hands. Instead, monopolistic capitalism concentrates productive wealth among a few men, allowing the rest to become a vast proletariat. – Fulton J. Sheen
The principle of democracy is a recognition of the sovereign, inalienable rights of man as a gift from God, the Source of law. – Fulton J. Sheen
It is the basic principle of Marxism that any attempt to reconcile capital and labor so that they both co-operate in peace and prosperity is a betrayal of communism. – Fulton J. Sheen
As long as the decent people refuse to believe that morality must manifest itself in every sphere of human activity, including the political, they will not meet the challenge of Marxism. – Fulton J. Sheen
One function of the angels is illumination, and the other function is that of being a guardian. – Fulton J. Sheen
If a man surrenders all power of self-determination in regard to the profits, management or ownership of the place where he works, he not only loses that special prerogative which marks him off from a cow in a pasture, but what is worse, he loses all capacity for determining any work. This is the beginning of a slavery which sometimes goes by the name of security. – Fulton J. Sheen
You have a chance to move in far better society than the Joneses. Why worry about keeping up with the Joneses? Keep up with the Angels and you’ll be far wiser and happier. – Fulton J. Sheen
The Soviet Union is like the Cross without Christ, while American culture is like Christ without the Cross. – Fulton J. Sheen
Some will not look on suffering because it creates responsibility. – Fulton J. Sheen
Our personal dispositions are as windowpanes through which we see the world either as rosy or dull. The way we color the glasses we wear is the way the world seems to us. – Fulton J. Sheen
The modern man, finding that Humanism and Sex both fail to satisfy, seeks his happiness in Science … But Science fails too, for it is something more than a knowledge of matter the soul craves. – Fulton J. Sheen
Sin is a disproportionate seriousness. – Fulton J. Sheen
Education lays hold of what is best in a person, but character lays hold of what is worse. It takes hold of a failing and by very skillful manipulation and training turns it into a perfection. – Fulton J. Sheen
Freedom that ignores the transcendent difference between good and evil ends in the denial of freedom itself. – Fulton J. Sheen
A person is great, not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. – Fulton J. Sheen
Other people are like a mirror which reflects back on us the kind of image we cast. – Fulton J. Sheen
The very freedom which the sinner supposedly exercises in his self-indulgence is only another proof that he is ruled by the tyrant. – Fulton J. Sheen
If we had intellectual vigour enough to ascend from effects to causes, we would explain political, economical and social phenomena less by credit sheets, balance of trade and reparations than by our attitude towards God. – Fulton J. Sheen
Democracy cannot survive where there is such uniformity that everyone wears exactly the same intellectual uniform or point of view. Democracy implies diversity of outlook, a variety of points of view on politics, economics, and world affairs. Hence the educational ideal is not uniformity but unity, for unity allows diversity of points of view regarding the good means to a good end. – Fulton J. Sheen
All our anxieties relate to time. – Fulton J. Sheen
To fall in love means to fall into something… And that something is responsibility. – Fulton J. Sheen
Wars come from egotism and selfishness. Every macrocosmic or world war has its origin in microcosmic wars going on inside millions and millions of individuals. – Fulton J. Sheen
Hearing is the motion of molecules; sound is a wave in the atmosphere; solidity is the characteristic of spatial juxtaposition of atoms; smell is something given off by a body, rather than something belonging to a body. – Fulton J. Sheen
Our generosity is measured not by what we give but by what we keep. – Fulton J. Sheen
The term science means something quite different for our generation than it did not so many generations ago. – Fulton J. Sheen
The higher the love, the more demands will be made on us to conform to that ideal. – Fulton J. Sheen
Gaston Milhaud, like many of his contemporaries, sought to overthrow empirical positivism by insisting on the fundamental reality of the mind, but mind conceived in the Kantian sense. The knowledge of nature is symbolic, and there is no necessary connection between the phenomena and our fictions. – Fulton J. Sheen
At Cana, [Mary] gave Him as a Savior to sinners; on the Cross He gave her as a refuge to sinners. – Fulton J. Sheen
The pacifist thinks that the alternative to war is peace; it is not. Sometimes the alternative is oppression. Sometimes certain God-given rights and liberties can be preserved only by resistance to that which would destroy them. And to defend certain basic God-given rights and liberties is not immoral but righteous. – Fulton J. Sheen
Skeptics always want miracles such as stepping down from the Cross, but never the greater miracle of forgiveness. – Fulton J. Sheen
Nature gives man corn but he must grind it; God gives man a will but he must make the right choices. – Fulton J. Sheen
Possession properly has two faces, two aspects: we all have a right to private property, but this is accompanied by our responsibility for its righteous use. These two things (which should be inseparable) are frequently divided today. Everyone admits that the farmer who own a horse is obligated to feed and care for it, but in the case of stocks and bonds, we often forget that the same principle should prevail. – Fulton J. Sheen
Scepticism is never certain of itself, being less a firm intellectual position than a pose to justify bad behavior. – Fulton J. Sheen
Faced with such insecurity, labor unions seek a solution in demands for higher wages, shorter hours, pensions, and such things. But this approach takes monopolistic capitalism for granted, and accepts the unnatural division between property and responsibility as permanent. A much more radical solution is apt to come, and this may take either of two forms. – Fulton J. Sheen
His words even imply that philanthropy has deeper depths than is generally realized. The great emotions of compassion and mercy are traced to Him; there is more to human deeds than the doers are aware. He identified every act of kindness as an expression of sympathy with Himself. All kindnesses are either done explicitly or implicitly in His name, or they are refused explicitly or implicitly in His name. – Fulton J. Sheen
Sex divorced from love, instead of raising man by taking him away from himself, drags him down to the hall of mirrors where he is always confronted with self. Sex does not care about the person, but about the act. The fig leaf which once was put over the secret parts of man and woman in sculpture is now put over the face. The person does not matter. – Fulton J. Sheen
Satan stations more devils on monastery walls than in the dens of iniquity, for the latter offer no resistance. – Fulton J. Sheen
Why is it that any time we speak of temptation we always speak of temptation as something that inclines us to wrong. We have more temptations to become good than we do to become bad. – Fulton J. Sheen
Knowing belongs to man’s intellect or reason; loving belongs to his will. The object of the intellect is truth; the object of the will is goodness or love. – Fulton J. Sheen
It is not easy to explain why God permits evil; but it is impossible for an atheist to explain the existence of goodness. How could a spiritless, soul-less, cross-less, Godless universe become the center of faith, purity, sacrifice, and martyrdom? How can decency be the decent thing if there is no God? Since God is love, why should we be surprised that want of it should end in pain, hate, broken hearts, and war? – Fulton J. Sheen
Buddha wrote a code which he said would be useful to guide men in darkness, but he never claimed to be the Light of the world. Buddhism was born with a disgust for the world, when a prince’s son deserted his wife and child, turning from the pleasures of existence to the problems of existence. Burnt by the fires of the world, and already weary with it, Buddha turned to ethics. – Fulton J. Sheen
Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall. – Fulton J. Sheen
The mind has three operations: the formation of ideas, judgements and reasoning. – Fulton J. Sheen
The world may disagree with the Church, but the world knows very definitely with what it is disagreeing. In the future as in the past, the Church will be intolerant about the sanctity of marriage, for what God has joined together no man shall put asunder; she will be intolerant about her creed, and be ready to die for it, for she fears not those who kill the body, but rather those who have the power to cast body and soul into hell. – Fulton J. Sheen
It was to a virgin woman that the birth of the Son of God was announced. It was to a fallen woman that His Resurrection was announced. – Fulton J. Sheen
If you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of the knowledge of Our Lord and of His Mystical Body, then teach him the Rosary. One of two things will happen. Either he will stop saying the Rosary – or he will get the gift of faith. – Fulton J. Sheen
A man may stand for the justice of God, but a woman stands for His Mercy. – Fulton J. Sheen
Head knowledge is worthless, unless accompanied by submission of the will and right action. – Fulton J. Sheen
The reason we’re bored is because we don’t love anything. – Fulton J. Sheen
Communism is the final logic of the dehumanization of man. The industrial civilization of the Western world has no intent to destroy man’s freedom or to deny his personality. But Communism does. Denying God, it reduces man to a robot. – Fulton J. Sheen
The only way to win audiences is to tell people about the life and death of Christ. Every other approach is a waste. – Fulton J. Sheen
Penance does not require hair shirts today; our neighbors are hair shirts. – Fulton J. Sheen
Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. – Fulton J. Sheen
Sex has become one of the most discussed subjects of modern times. The Victorians pretended it did not exist; the moderns pretend nothing else exists. – Fulton J. Sheen
All my sermons are prepared in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. As recreation is most pleasant and profitable in the sun, so homiletic creativity is best nourished before the Eucharist. The most brilliant ideas come from meeting God face to face. The Holy Spirit that presided at the Incarnation is the best atmosphere for illumination. Pope John Paul II keeps a small desk or writing pad near him whenever he is in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament; and I have done this all my life – I am sure for the same reason he does, because a lover always works better when the beloved is with him. – Fulton J. Sheen
A reasonable being should ask himself why – if chemicals can enter into plants, and plants be taken up into animals, and animals be taken into man – why man himself, who is the peak of visible creation, should be denied the privilege of being assimilated into a higher power? The rose has no right to say that there is no life above it and neither has man, who has a vast capacity and unconquerable yearning for eternal life and truth and love. – Fulton J. Sheen
It is a long established principle of the Church never to completely drop from her public worship any ceremony, object or prayer which once occupied a place in that worship. – Fulton J. Sheen
The nearer Christ comes to a heart, the more it becomes conscious of its guilt; it will then either ask for his mercy and find peace, or else it will turn against Him because it is not yet ready to give up its sinfulness. Thus He will separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff. Man’s reaction to this Divine Presence will be the test: either it will call out all the opposition of egotistic natures, or else galvanize them into a regeneration and a resurrection. – Fulton J. Sheen
Freedom is not just something with which we are born; it is something we achieve. America did not receive a perpetual endowment of freedom; it has had to struggle and fight to preserve it. Freedom is not an heirloom or an antique; it is a life that must fight against the corrosive powers of death and nourish itself on the daily bread of goodness and virtue. – Fulton J. Sheen
Obedience to Truth is obedience to Love. – Fulton J. Sheen
Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love? – Fulton J. Sheen
A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults. – Fulton J. Sheen
When a child is given to his parents, a crown is made for that child in Heaven, and woe to the parents who raise a child without consciousness of that eternal crown! – Fulton J. Sheen
Health, power, riches, possessions and honor can be snatched from you, but your will is irrevocably your own. – Fulton J. Sheen
The simple shepherds heard the voice of an angel and found their Lamb; the wise men saw the light of a star and found their Wisdom. – Fulton J. Sheen
The basic struggle today is not between individualism and collectivism, free enterprise and socialism, democracy and dictatorship. These are only the superficial manifestations of a deeper struggle which is moral and spiritual and involves above all else whether man shall exist for the state, or the state for man, and whether freedom is of the spirit or a concession of a materialized society. – Fulton J. Sheen
Any book which inspires us to lead a better life is a good book. – Fulton J. Sheen
Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from God, you are perfected and completed. – Fulton J. Sheen
For a woman, love is its own reason. “I love you because I love you. – Fulton J. Sheen
Being is the soul of every concept, of every judgment and of every reasoning. – Fulton J. Sheen
We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble. – Fulton J. Sheen
When our conscience bothers us, whether we admit it or not, we often try to justify it by correcting others, or by finding fault with them. The readiness to believe evil about others is in large part ammunition for a thousand scandals in our own hearts. – Fulton J. Sheen
Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right. – Fulton J. Sheen
