Whoever has not experienced it will not be able to believe how much we gain by being careful not to fail in little things; for the devil, by means of these, makes gaps and breaches through which great things can enter.—-St. Teresa

When St. Louis Bertrand was Superior he used to reprove and punish very severely, at the Friday Chapter, the very smallest faults, such as failing in silence, oversleeping a little, or making a mistake in choir—-only because he judged that advancement and religious discipline depended on these little things.

St. Lawrence Justinian took more pains to guard himself from slight faults than from grave ones; for he used to say that to beware of grave faults belonged not to Religious, but to seculars.