Pope Paul VI quotes

Pope Paul VI was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. His papacy was marked by significant reforms, including the continuation and conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. He promoted dialogue with other religions and worked towards modernizing the Church. Here are 36 of his quotes:

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.

Pope Paul VI

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.

Pope Paul VI

In youth the days are short and the years are long. In old age the years are short and day's long.

Pope Paul VI

Of all human activities, man's listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.

Pope Paul VI

If you want peace work for justice.

Pope Paul VI

If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase.

Pope Paul VI

Priestly celibacy has been guarded by the Church for centuries as a brilliant jewel, and retains its value undiminished even in our time when the outlook of men and the state of the world have undergone such profound changes.

Pope Paul VI

A dimple on the chin, the devil within.

Pope Paul VI

Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy.

Pope Paul VI

Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land. She prepares a world she will not see.

Pope Paul VI

The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune.

Pope Paul VI

Never give advice in a crowd.

Pope Paul VI

The Eucharistic mystery stands at the heart and center of the liturgy since it is the fount of life by which we are cleansed and strengthened to live not for ourselves but for God and to be united in love among ourselves.

Pope Paul VI

No more war! Never again war! If you wish to be brothers, drop your weapons.

Pope Paul VI

The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.

Pope Paul VI

We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.

Pope Paul VI

Physics does not change the nature of the world it studies, and no science of behavior can change the essential nature of man, even though both sciences yield technologies with a vast power to manipulate the subject matters.

Pope Paul VI

You must strive to multiply bread so that it suffices for the tables of mankind, and not rather favor an artificial control of birth, which would be irrational, in order to diminish the number of guests at the banquet of life.

Pope Paul VI

I met a hundred men going to Delhi and everyone is my brother.

Pope Paul VI

Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest.

Pope Paul VI

I was solitary before, but now my solitariness becomes complete and awesome. Hence the dizziness, the vertigo. Like a statue on a plinth-that is how I live now. Jesus also was alone on the cross. I should not seek outside help to absolve me from my duty; my duty is too plain: decide, assume every responsibility for guiding others, even when it seems illogical and perhaps absurd. And to suffer alone... Me and God. The colloquy must be full and endless.

Pope Paul VI

The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.

Pope Paul VI