Live the present intensely and fully, do not let the past be a burden, and let the future be an incentive. Each person forges his or her own destiny.

Just as a parent is pleased with the efforts of his little child to please him, though it be only by picking a daisy or walking across a room, so is our Father in heaven pleased with the poor performances of His believing children. He looks at the motive, principle, and intention of their actions, and not merely at their quantity and quality. He regards them as members of His own dear Son.

Tomorrow is the devil’s day, but today is God’s. Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions are, or how holy your resolutions, if only they are determined to be done tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the devil’s day, but today is God’s. Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions are, or how holy your resolutions, if only they are determined to be done tomorrow.

The individual or the group which organizes any society, however social its intentions or pretensions, arrogates an inordinate portion of social privilege to itself.

All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.

Institutions mistake good intentions for objectives. They say “health care”; that’s an intention, not an objective.

They wrongly believe that good intentions move mountains. Bulldozers move mountains. But there are exceptions.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

In art intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish, love must be proved by deeds and not by reasons. What one does is what counts and not what one had the intention of doing.

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defence in favour of a weapons-free world, there is at least one warmaker anxious to exploit the other’s good intentions.

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

I once heard a wise man say there are no perfect men. Only perfect intentions.