11 Quotes by Isidore of Seville

Nothing exists without music, for the universe itself is said to have been framed by a kind of harmony of sounds, and the heaven itself revolves under the tone of that harmony.

Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin, all hope consists in confession; in confession there is a chance for mercy.

If a man wants to be always in God’s company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us.

Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading.

Teaching unsupported by grace may enter our ears, but it never reaches the heart. When God’s grace does touch our innermost minds to bring understanding, then his word, which is received by the ear, can sink deep into the heart.

Letters are signs of things, symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a voice they speak to us the words of the absent; for they introduce words by the eye, not by the ear.

Baptism is not the work of man but of Christ, and this sacrament is so holy that it would not be defiled, even if the minister were a murderer.

War with vices, but peace with individuals.

In the active life all the vices are first of all to be removed by the practice of good works, so that in the contemplative life a man may, with now purified mental gaze, pass on to the contemplation of the Divine Light.